Differentiated e-learning: five approaches through instructional technology

Differentiated instruction is an approach to teaching that acknowledges people have multiple paths for learning and for making sense of ideas. In e-learning, differentiated instruction has the same meaning as in traditional instruction, but different tools are available to help students learn and to provide information in ways most appropriate to them, including types of new media inclusion, levels of interactivity, response actions, and enhanced ability to collect data on the fly and to deliver custom content. This paper discusses what the tools of e-learning contribute to differentiated instruction and shares a framework for five common approaches to adaptive courseware.