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The Charles Sturt University (CSU) Engineering programme is a new course (degree programmme) established in 2016 by a university that had not previously taught engineering. This start from scratch occasion was taken as an opportunity to build an all-new programme structure and philosophy. Students at CSU Engineering complete a sequence of three semester-long Project-Based Learning (PBL) style challenges across their time face-to-face at the university; after this point, they commence four yearlong paid industry-based work placements and continue studies in an online mode during evenings, weekends, and scheduled study days. The underlying technical curriculum for the engineering programme at Charles Sturt University is delivered mostly on-line via the RealizeIT platform and is based on a philosophy of just-in-time, self-directed learning. Students have freedom in deciding when, how and, to a large extent, which elements of the curriculum they engage within the online environment. This freedom, along with the PBL-style challenges, is enabled by the structure of the technical curriculum which is broken down into fine-grained learning activities called 'topics'. In this paper, we summarise our experiences during the first four years, and the insights gained into student behaviours when offered an opportunity to engage in self-directed learning.

This study represents an adaptive learning partnership among the University of Central Florida, Colorado Technical University, and the adaptive learning provider Realizeit. A 13-variable learning domain for students forms the basis of a component invariance study. The results show that four dimensions--knowledge acquisition, engagement activities, communication, and growth--remain constant in nursing and mathematics courses across the two universities, indicating that the adaptive modality stabilizes learning organization in multiple disciplines. The authors contend that similar collaborative partnerships among universities and vendors is an important next step in the research process.

Adaptive learning technologies impact higher education by modifying the traditional time constraints placed on the learning cycle, thus permitting students to compress or expand their learning spaces. Previous work by the authors has demonstrated dimensional stability in the adaptive process across universities with considerably different strategic initiatives. However, a prevailing question remains about the correspondence of student position on those components. Transformed component scores for the four stable dimensions (knowledge acquisition, engagement, growth and communication) have been contrasted for comparability in beginning Algebra, College Algebra and Nursing courses at the University of Central Florida and the Colorado Technical University on several metrics generated by the Realizeit adaptive learning platform. The results indicated considerable variability in student affinity for the underlying dimensions depending on a number of considerations such as course length, subject area, and the instructional design process. The authors have concluded that adaptive learning is a complex system in which the interaction of the elements becomes more important than individual measures for understanding the emergent property of this learning environment. Finally, they contend that the potential value added of adaptive learning must be carefully considered with respect to its opportunity cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]