Personalised learning in higher education for health sciences: a scoping review protocol

BACKGROUND: Personalised learning, an educational approach that tailors teaching and learning to individual needs and preferences, has gained attention in recent years, particularly in higher education. Advances in educational technology have facilitated the implementation of personalised learning in various contexts. Despite its potential benefits, the literature on personalised learning in health sciences higher education remains scattered and heterogeneous. This scoping review aims to identify and map the current literature on personalised learning in health sciences higher education and its definition, implementation strategies, benefits, and limitations.

METHODS: A comprehensive search of electronic databases, PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar, Educational Research Complete, and Journal Storage (JSTOR), will be conducted to identify relevant articles. The search will be limited to articles published in the English language between 2000 and 2023. The search strategy will be designed and adapted for each database using a combination of keywords and subject headings related to personalised learning and health sciences higher education. Eligibility criteria will be applied to screen and select articles. Data extraction and quality assessment will be performed, and thematic synthesis will be used to analyse the extracted data.

DISCUSSION: The results of the scoping review will present a comprehensive and coherent overview of the literature on personalised learning in health sciences higher education. Key themes and topics related to personalised learning, its definitions, models, implementation strategies, benefits, and limitations, will be identified. The geographical and temporal distribution of research on personalised learning in health sciences higher education will also be described. This scoping review will provide a structured synthesis of the available evidence on personalised learning in health sciences higher education, highlighting potential gaps and areas for future research. The findings will contribute to ongoing scholarly and policy debates on personalised learning in higher education, informing the development of best practices, guidelines, and future research agendas.