Wilson College recently added a new master’s degree to its expanding offerings in education graduate programs: a Master of Mass Customized Learning. The MMCL program prepares educators to create a student-centered learning environment by enabling them to tailor their teaching methods to the individual learning style of each student.

The philosophy behind mass customized learning, which has been widely promoted by educator-authors Charles Schwahn and Beatrice McGarvey, is rapidly gaining in popularity, according to Eric Michael, Wilson’s director of graduate education programs.  He said more school districts are embracing the technique, which has been made possible by advances in technology.

“This is shifting the whole mindset of traditional education,” said Michael, former superintendent of curriculum for the Chambersburg Area School District. “There are districts throughout the country that are moving toward this. It is gaining steam—we see a lot of growth potential.”

What is mass customized learning? First, it represents a shift away from the traditional “mass production” model of education that many of us are familiar with. The MCL vision is learner-centered, where teachers empower and put into place the conditions in which student (or learner) choice is central to the learning experience, according to a review of Schwahn and McGarvey’s book Inevitable: Mass Customized Learning in an Age of Empowerment.

MCL could mean allowing some students to move on if they’ve mastered a concept, while others keep working. It could mean offering students different options in the ways they want to learn, or giving them free reign to choose their own topics of study.

“We know we all have different ways of learning. Some might learn best visually, some by listening to lectures and some learn best by doing,” Michael said. “MCL gives the teacher more tools to be able to deliver in the classroom.”

In much the same way that people have the ability to customize services or products to meet their needs, MCL takes a similar approach in the education of children.  Although technology provides important ways to leverage the digital age to meet the needs of each learner, the effective use of MCL requires a complete transformation of the current industrial-age model of education, according to Schwahn and McGarvey, both former teachers and school administrators who have authored two books on the MCL concept.

Several regional consortiums have been formed to examine the concept and potential benefits of MCL, including the Pennsylvania Leadership Development Center and the Mass Customized Learning Mid-Atlantic Consortium. And in Pennsylvania, several school districts have taken the lead in adopting the MCL philosophy. Central York School District’s efforts are described in this York Daily Record story from 2016.

Wilson’s MCL master’s degree, which began in fall 2017, is targeted toward classroom teachers. It’s offered in an online format, but “we would work with school districts with cohorts of teachers” to provide alternates such as onsite course teaching, according to Michael. He said courses can be scheduled at the student’s convenience and the degree can be completed in 18, 24 or 36 months.

For more information about Wilson’s Master of Mass Customized Learning, contact Michael’s office at 717-262-2045 or med@wilson.edu, or visit https://www.wilson.edu/master-mass-customized-learning.