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IDEAL Consortium
Ten Years with IDEAL
Ten Years with IDEAL
In August 2025, World Education led our 10th IDEAL Summer Institute, a two-day online gathering that brought together 60 adult education experts, professional development leaders, and digital education experts from 20 member states. With support from our sponsors, Essential Education, EnGen, Ellii Learning Company, Pace AI, and New Readers Press, the Institute spotlighted the challenges and opportunities shaping the field today:
The urgent need for AI integration and literacy. For example, Texas Center for the Advancement of Literacy and Learning has invested in Professional Development (PD) designed to help teachers learn about GenAI tools for curriculum development and EdAdvance (Connecticut) has a landing page on their website that offers teachers practical tips and PD opportunities.
Growing experimentation with microlearning and flexible PD models. Several states are testing short-format PD, like Minnesota’s post-conference microlearning using the app 7-Tabs or New Mexico, Massachusetts and other states repurposing webinar video content for microlearning.
States’ desire to use data for improvement, not just compliance. Their goal is to leverage data systems in new ways, moving from compliance to improvement. For example, Colorado and Massachusetts highlighted the need for updated dashboards and better customizations to track distance and digital education outcomes.
The importance of embedding skills aligned with employer needs. For example, Kentucky and Arizona are boosting alignment of educational programming within career pathways. Colorado is actively working with Title I providers to find ways to collaborate.
The Institute reminded us that progress in adult education comes from learning together, sharing openly, and supporting each other through challenges. Here’s to the next decade of IDEAL collaboration and impact on issues like AI literacy, microlearning, and workforce development systems alignment.
The Innovating Digital Education in Adult Learning (IDEAL) Consortium
The Innovating Digital Education in Adult Learning (IDEAL) Consortium
The Innovating Digital Education in Adult Learning (IDEAL) Consortium, an EdTech initiative at World Education, supports quality technology-enriched instruction in adult education and literacy programs across the United States. For over 15 years, the IDEAL Consortium, previously Project IDEAL, has provided technical assistance, web-based tools, and publications to member states to help them design distance, blended, and HyFlex earning options. We help state and regional leadership train their staff, provide just-in-time technical support, and assess the progress of their efforts.
Membership ensures opportunities for leaders from member states to meet, learn from each other, and access professional development materials. Technical assistance is available on data collection and analysis, reporting, educational program design, instructional strategies, and selection and use of online curricula. IDEAL Consortium workshop topics and ongoing discussions are shaped in response to the needs and interests of consortium membership.
IDEAL aims to improve its members’ ability to support and accelerate adult learning with technology, both inside and outside of the classroom. We share strategies gleaned from educational research and from our membership for leveraging recent educational technology innovations, ensuring the relevance of professional development offerings available to member states’ teachers. IDEAL Consortium members can customize their memberships from a list of professional development and networking options.
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