Higher education institutions are increasingly interested in using adaptive learning as an innovative data-driven approach to teaching. The actual use of adaptive learning in courses remains, however, low. This is despite positive attitudes of institutional leaders towards its adoption and promising results of early studies on its effectiveness. This study examines the challenges that prevent higher education institutions from adopting adaptive learning concepts in teaching. We used a four-stage Delphi design to empirically identify, categorise, and prioritise the challenges of adaptive learning raised and rated by experts from two universities with different organisational and socioeconomic contexts, one from Switzerland and one from South Africa. Considering different contexts allowed us to include various perspectives on the research topic and thus broaden the view on the challenges of adaptive learning. Overall, three main dimensions related to technological, teaching and learning, and organisational challenges with eight corresponding categories were identified. Our findings revealed clear differences between the two universities regarding the emerged challenges and their rankings. These differences are linked to different socioeconomic backgrounds (South Africa and Switzerland) and organisational contexts (e.g., type of the university, teaching model, and implementation phase) of the universities. We conclude by proposing practical recommendations for institutional leaders and project implementers on the factors to be considered when implementing adaptive learning in higher education settings. These recommendations relate to the necessary infrastructure, institutional commitment, support and resources.

中文翻译：

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在高等教育中建立适应性学习的挑战和背景：德尔福研究的结果

高等教育机构越来越有兴趣使用自适应学习作为一种创新的数据驱动教学方法。然而，自适应学习在课程中的实际使用仍然很低。尽管机构领导人对其采用持积极态度，并且对其有效性的早期研究取得了有希望的结果。本研究探讨了阻止高等教育机构在教学中采用适应性学习概念的挑战。我们使用了一个四阶段的 Delphi 设计，对由来自不同组织和社会经济背景的两所大学（一所来自瑞士和一所来自南非）的专家提出和评估的适应性学习挑战进行实证识别、分类和优先排序。考虑不同的背景使我们能够将研究主题的各种观点纳入其中，从而拓宽对适应性学习挑战的看法。总体而言，确定了与技术、教学和学习以及组织挑战相关的三个主要维度，以及八个相应的类别。我们的调查结果揭示了两所大学在面临的挑战及其排名方面存在明显差异。这些差异与大学的不同社会经济背景（南非和瑞士）和组织环境（例如，大学类型、教学模式和实施阶段）有关。最后，我们就在高等教育环境中实施适应性学习时要考虑的因素向机构领导者和项目实施者提出实用建议。这些建议涉及必要的基础设施、机构承诺、支持和资源。