“Precision education” has attracted attention as an instantiation of personalized learning, but my interest in it lies in its (a) perspective of flexibility, and (b) it’s adoption of medical thinking/terminology vis-a-vis education research that critiques such models.

 

The purchase is part of National University’s push to try new forms of online education. Last year it announced a new higher-education model it calls “precision education,” though officials say that this project was separate. Both projects involve breaking the college curriculum down into small modules and letting students complete them at their own pace.

[…]

Students pay the flat $8,500 a year for tuition, but they can work through the material at their own pace. “Some people will take four years to get a four-year degree, some people will take three years, some people will take five years,” Cunningham said. “Our goal is to build a library of digital content broken down into its smallest possible components.”

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2018-07-09-nonprofit-university-buys-for-profit-college-for-its-tech-platform

 

The idea is to replace one-size-fits-all lectures with a range of mix-and-match educational materials, so delivering a course can be done the way a doctor might consider different treatment options for different patients.

Officials are calling the approach “precision education,” a nod to the practice of “precision medicine” that is gaining popularity for cancer treatments and other ailments. And today National University, which specializes in serving nontraditional students, announced that it will spend $20 million over the next three years converting dozens of general-education courses to a precision model.

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2017-07-19-precision-education-hopes-to-apply-big-data-to-lift-diverse-student-groups