Students’ perceptions of personalized learning paths as a strategy for E-learning development

Personalized Learning Paths (PLPs) became rather popular in e-learning settings, providing customized learning experiences according to specific characteristics about the learners such as the learning styles and the learning goals and etc. This paper aims to explore student perceptions on PLPs along three dimensions: motivation and engagement, learning satisfaction and perceived effectiveness, and challenges and concerns. A mix-method design was employed with quantitative output derived from a questionnaire survey of 352 university students and qualitative data collected from semi-structured interviews. The results show that students tend to have a positive perception of PLPs, which show them that they gain more motivation, autonomy and perceived relevance of their content. Nevertheless, several challenges were reported, such as low teacher assistance, challenges for self-regulation, technological problems, and the confidentiality of data. The results highlight the need to design PLPs that balance learner freedom and guidance, and also consider accessibility and ethical issues. This study contributes insights into students’ actual experiences with personalized learning, offering a clearer perspective on its key components and highlighting potential strategies for making e-learning more inclusive and effective.