The Rapid Response, Innovation, and Challenges of Sustainability in the Time of COVID-19

This report builds on the researchers’ findings in the July 2020 “Evidence-Based Adult Education System COVID-19 Rapid Response Report from the Field.” The researchers respond to areas of interest identified in the earlier report based on interviews conducted in 2021 with Adult Foundation Education practitioners and include a summary of their original findings. The research describes how the field has continued to evolve, not just in response to COVID-19 shutdowns, but because of a growing awareness that distance or hybrid modalities of instruction are options that give many learners much-needed flexibility in ways to participate and that it can be effective if teachers and learners have the necessary supports.

Examples of innovation from research and reports are compiled as follow-up to the initial data collection completed in the late fall of 2021. The report concludes with a discussion of lessons learned and ongoing challenges, not just to sustain innovation but also to continue to work towards increased efficacy and quality.

(This report is 31 pages long.)

(The study took place from 2021–2022.)

The researchers identified the following selected findings:

Access

• Access to Devices. The issue most frequently cited by interviewees was access to devices. Many learners who could not afford them were left out of otherwise free virtual adult education.
• Access to the Internet. A second major issue related to access was the availability and affordability of internet service.
• Digital Literacy Skills. Once learners had devices and internet access, a third major issue was the lack of digital literacy skills necessary to participate in online learning.

Digital Instructional Strategies

• Programs leveraged common digital strategies to provide instruction during the shutdown: use of learning management systems to house digitized curricula, comprehensive and licensed online curricula, and video conferencing.
• Instructional Format Changes. Most program staff identified instructional format changes they had made during the shutdown that they had continued to employ even as programs began to open for in-person instruction.

Impact of Ongoing Remote Instruction on Adult Educators

• Collaboration and Peer Support. In many locales, administrators saw that teachers benefited from structured opportunities for collaboration and offered professional development opportunities that included more collaborative sessions, which encouraged teacher sharing.

Supporting Learners

• Communication. Programs embraced new strategies for the use of digital technology to stay in touch and check in on learners during emergencies, as well as when learners missed more than one session.
• Flexible Programming. The additional support and connection with students led to what a state administrator noted was higher learner retention than in previous years.
• Case Management. Another way that programs supported learners was to offer flexibility in hours of instruction and start online office hours during which learners could ask questions and receive additional tutoring.

The researchers proposed the following recommendations:

• The field needs to continue working toward a level of equilibrium to a point where the new ways of working and technologies deployed are sustainable.
• This will require overcoming several important challenges, such as the need for evaluation of innovations; ensuring equity in the field; new policies to accompany innovations; additional funds needed to sustain innovations; and expanding and continuing to refine innovations.

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2022
• Author(s): Belzer, A.; Leon, T.; Patterson, M.; Salas-Isnardi, F.; Vanek, J.; Webb, C.
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
• Posted by: India Johnson
• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies