Framing a personalized online tutorial instruction: cognition and metacognition considerations / Dr. Leow Min Hui

Current research interest in technology-driven learning instructions is acknowledged to have a specific emphasis on personalized learning. Since the twenty-first century teaching and learning strategies have shifted from student-centered learning to student-directed learning in a culture where technology is widely used. The development of online tutorials is one of the initiatives that addresses pandemic crisis. This study focuses on the investigation of online tutorials in a post-pandemic context which contributes to online learning modulation concerning personalized instructional design in Malaysian elementary schools. This study investigates the instructional personalization through learners’ cognition and metacognition practices when experiencing online tutorials, in order to discover learners’ learning needs and preferences. 14 learners (aged 9) from a Malaysian elementary school were included in this study. An observational and interview-based qualitative case study was adopted. Thematic analysis was employed to generate codes, categories, and themes. As a result, a personalized online tutorial instruction was framed by including the features such as freedom in task and activity selection and planning on the basis of explicit instructional goals, complexity of information input and capacity of resources or materials for different learners’ needs, suitability of task difficulty level for various learners, multiple intelligence consideration, and differentiated peer scaffolding and teacher feedback. This study draws attention to the significance of cognition and metacognition considerations to suggest online tutorial instruction that underpins personalization.