Why embracing content agility is key

The term 'agile' has become common in software development. Developers used to build their programming schedules around a set-in-stone blueprint. But they increasingly adopt an insights-driven approach, shaping the result as they go. Based on knowledge gained during short iterations, they adjust or change course so as to reach the best possible outcome.

With the educational content shift taking place, it's key to embrace the principle of agile when it comes to educational content, too. Let's have a closer look at what we like to call 'content agility.'

Accommodating ever-changing needs: flexibility required

One-size-fits-all learning materials are outdated. Personalised learning puts the student in charge of their own learning path, and the educational outcome becomes a moving target. This requires content to be customisable — it should adapt to the individual student's ever-changing needs. Logically, a high degree of flexibility is necessary to accommodate these needs: it should be easy to adjust the use and re-use of content based on a student’s current requirements.

With that in mind, it's also paramount to be flexible when it comes to content development processes, management, and distribution models. Here's why: if you divide a traditional book into digital parts that can be used separately, it's not yet clear who can use which part at what point in time. You still need to link each part to the individual student who needs a specific piece of material.

Towards a content agility process: how to go about labelling

How does all this affect metadata? Briefly put, labelling content is no longer a one-time task. It's an ongoing, iterative, dynamic process. As you keep accommodating the student's needs, you continue to adapt learning materials. That means you can't label a piece of content once and never look at it again. The content changes, so labels do, too.

If you consistently assign relevant, topical labels to content, you've successfully set up a content agility process. Within this process, however, you will want to consider metadata automation, as labelling content manually is a prohibitively expensive and error-prone endeavour.

But how does that impact operations? And how about investments and ROI? We will address these questions in our next blog posts on content agility.