Personalised Learning Profile: Getting to Know Your Students' Multiple Backgrounds
Updated: Mar 29
What is a Personalised Learning Profile? Assoc. Prof. Ts. Dr Mah Boon Yih initiated the Personalised Learning Profile in facilitating the instructors as a move toward personalised learning. It is used to collect the learners' biographical data, understand their academic backgrounds, test their proficiency levels, and identify their learning preferences. The data obtained from the submitted forms can benefit learners of all ages and instructors of any subject.
Personalised Learning Profile 2.0
Personalised Learning Profile 2.0 is its next version, built on Microsoft Form, with enhanced design and additional features. There is additional data collection on the learners' online distance learning (ODL) readiness besides the biographical data, academic backgrounds, proficiency levels, and learning preferences as a summary of the essential characteristics of a learner. Below are the five sections found in the Personalised Learning Profile 2.0.
1. Biographical Data
There are many kinds of information you want to know about your learners. To be an effective instructor, biographical data can help you know your learners, who are mostly strangers at the beginning of the semester. Once you are familiar with your learners' names, genders, ages, hometowns, and contact numbers, it may be easier to use a messenger application like WhatsApp to set up a group for easy communication and file sharing with your learners.
2. Academic Background
Looking at the student's academic backgrounds, such as degrees of study, programmes, courses, classes, and past academic results, instructors can understand their learners whether they need academic attention or further assistance. Besides knowing your student's biographical information, knowing them academically can be useful for helping weak learners to understand the subjects.
3. Proficiency Levels
Besides the biographical and academic backgrounds, the next crucial aspect is the learners' proficiency levels. A learner's proficiency reflects how he or she functions in the real-world language through multiple skills, including reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Before conducting assessments in a language classroom, the language instructor should measure their students' proficiency levels at the initial stage to benchmark their learning process.
4. Learning Preferences
The next component of the Personalised Learning Profile is identifying the learning preferences. Click HERE to learn how the learners can help themselves by knowing their learning preferences as measured in the Personalised Learning Profile. Based on the myriad theoretical models to determine what the learners prefer in their learning process, an instructor can determine what works best for them. This can save plenty of time figuring out the best way to deliver your lesson and the contents you want to teach using various methods to reach all students.
5. Online Distance Learning (ODL) Readiness
To understand the learners' readiness and problems faced during the ODL session, some important aspects need to be identified and solved before the beginning of the semester. These include the learners' current location, the status of returning to campus in the current semester, internet connection problems, other related ODL problems, the readiness to use Microsoft Teams' live meeting, and other preferred ODL platforms besides using Microsoft Teams.
Form Submission Steps Solutions
You may use the Personalised Learning Profile 2.0 as the sample in your classroom. Below are the simple steps to answer and submit the form:
Click Start now.
Complete items 1 to 3 in the Welcome! section.
Click Next.
Complete items 4 to 9 in the Biographical Data section.
Complete items 10 to 16 in the Academic Background section.
Complete items 17 to 20 in the Proficiency Levels section based on the given links and state your result in the CEF level after completing the test based on the specified links. Each test must be attempted ONCE only in a full concentration manner. It is advisable to screenshot the pages of the tests' results after completion for future reference.
Complete items 21 to 24 in the Learning Preferences section by choosing only ONE from each pair of dichotomous learning preferences as indicated by a longer bar in the comparison chart from the result page; for example: Choose one between sensing and intuitive, one between visual and verbal, one between active and reflective, and one between sequential and global. Make sure the total selection is only four. It is also advisable to screenshot the page of the questionnaire's results after completion for future reference.
Complete items 25 until 28 or 33 in the Online Distance Learning (ODL) Readiness section.
Click Submit once confirmed to submit.
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