Key Findings

Feedback from higher education teachers, and learning and writing consultants supports the findings from a literature review of the effectiveness of the Personalised System of Instruction, and self-determination theory.

Key points included:

• concerns around deadlines and procrastination
• ensuring there are opportunities for students to engage with peers
• ensuring appropriate technologies are available and accessible and that there are cautions around workload feasibility.

How fast and how well a student progresses through the course should not be determined by administrative constraints, but by the student themselves. Students at all levels of subject knowledge and learning skills at the start of the course should have a strong chance to pass the course and do so well.

Key Recommendations

By directly engaging with students, the teaching team can adapt and focus their formative feedback to meet individual student needs as well as inform course design.

The authors' propose:

• exploring practical options to increase the opportunity for meaningful pedagogic conversations between students and teachers
• significantly increasing the number of hours invested into student support
• investigating a pilot within one or two institutions with a limited number of courses to properly determine the costs of implementation and evaluate benefits.