Differentiated Plans: a plan for every student

Each student is unique, and differentiation is one of the clearest ways to make learning more effective for the individual learner. The Planner is the core tool in itslearning for organising teaching and learning activities. Until now, teachers could only assign plans to all participants in a course. With Differentiated Plans, teachers can assign a plan to specific students or groups, supporting personalised learning without creating separate courses. 

Why differentiation matters

No two students learn in exactly the same way. In every classroom, teachers support students with different levels of prior knowledge, learning needs, interests, and confidence.

Research suggests that differentiated instruction can improve engagement and learning outcomes by adapting teaching, resources, and activities to meet students' varying needs. Rather than expecting every learner to complete the same activities at the same pace, differentiation gives teachers the flexibility to provide the right level of support and challenge. 

In practice, differentiation can look like:

• Providing additional guidance and scaffolding for students who need extra support
• Offering extension activities to students who are ready for greater challenge
• Assigning different tasks to groups working at different levels
• Supporting students with individual learning goals
• Adjusting instruction based on student progress and needs

What teachers can now do

With Differentiated Plans, teachers can:

• Assign a plan to specific students or groups
• Use the assign-to feature on both new and existing courses
• Assign specific resources and activities within a plan to individual students or groups, even when the plan itself is already assigned to a subset of participants

How plans and resources connect

When Differentiated Plans is turned on for a course, plans and resources become more closely connected. Each plan that is assigned to specific users gets a separate plan folder in Resources.

• If topics are used, the structure in Resources follows Topic > Plan
• If topics are not used, plan folders are added to the root in Resources
• Creating a new resource from within a plan stores it directly in the associated plan folder
• Elements can be added directly from the associated plan folder in Resources. Any element placed in that folder is automatically included in the plan. 
• If an existing resource is added to a plan, it is moved into that plan's folder
• If the same resource is added to a second plan, permissions are applied to the resource itself rather than the folder. This allows the resource to be shared across multiple plans and users. The resource stays stored in its original folder, so it will not appear in the folder of the second plan, although it is still accessible through the plan interface.

Adding topics to plans is not mandatory. When topics are used, topic folders are created even if the setting for creating a topic folder is not selected. Teachers can edit the name of topic folders and plan folders in Resources, and any changes made there will update the title in Plans as well. 

Turning Differentiated Plans on

There are three layers to switching this on:

1. itslearning turns on the development toggle "Enables assign-to feature for plan"
2. A system administrator can enable Differentiated Plans for all new courses through Set default course settings. The setting is off by default.
3. Teachers or admins can enable or disable Differentiated Plans for a specific course under 'Course settings and properties'

Assigning a plan to specific students

Once Differentiated Plans is enabled for your course:

1. Open the single plan page
2. Find the assign-to section on the left, just above the Visibility toggle. By default, the plan is assigned to all participants.
3. Click Change 
4. Select participants and groups from the course
5. Save your selection

Once the plan is assigned, other students in the course cannot see or access it. Any elements added to the plan, such as resources or activities, will only be visible to the students the plan is assigned to, both on the Plans page and in Resources.

Supporting personalised learning

Differentiated Plans makes it easier to deliver personalised learning within the same course. By assigning plans, resources, and activities to the students who need them, teachers can provide the right level of support and challenge without additional courses or administrative overhead. 

Read our support article for more information.