The paper explores a shift in education from educational systems requiring student adaptation to educational recommendation systems adapting to students' individual needs. The paper discusses the concept of adaptation as addressed in educational research and draws on the system theory of Heinz von Foerster to shed light on how the educational system has used and understood adaptation. In this context, we point out two different approaches to educational adaptation: 1) students adapting to the educational system and 2) the attempt of the educational system to adapt to students through automatized system adaptation and recommendation systems. These different understandings constitute a design framework that is used to analyze two current trends: Adaptive learning systems and learning analytics. Finally, the paper discusses the potential of looking at adaptation as recommendation systems by presenting a case, which is methodologically inspired by Design-Based Research, in the form of a special type of adaptive MOOC, the so-called adaptive SPOC (Small Private Online Course).