Indicators of the Learning Context for Supporting Personalized and Adaptive Learning Environments

Personalized and adaptive learning environments (PALE) offer benefits for workplace learning because they can account for individual needs and constantly changing work requirements. Yet, the identification of reliable indicators for supporting trusted PALE remains a major challenge. This systematic review provides an overview of empirically investigated indicators of the learning context. Out of an initial set of 28,782 publications, a final sample of 273 key publications was identified, according to predefined inclusion criteria. The synthesis yielded 208 indicators of the learning context that were clustered into 26 dimensions. The findings show that the learning context has been associated with learning processes and outcomes in numerous included studies and should therefore be considered when designing PALE. Future research shall detect the most relevant indicators as well as design and evaluate specific learning interventions based on these indicators.