Lifelong Learning

It may be classroom based, it may be on-the-job. It may require reading, it may be hands-on. It may be solo, it may be communal. But to be effective, education must allow for the diverse skills, experience, strengths, challenges, preferences, and beliefs that individuals bring to the learning process. From this diversity comes the multiple perspectives and fresh approaches needed for creative problem solving in a complex world.

A new type of thinking is essential if mankind is to survive and move toward higher levels.
-Albert Einstein

The Challenge of Learning

Opportunities to learn must be as rich and varied as the learners themselves. Digital technologies have unprecedented potential to make continuous learning available to people of all backgrounds and learning needs. Yet that potential is largely unrealized due to:

• Instructional designs based on one-size-fits-all models and without understanding of how learning occurs.

• Weak or non-existent evaluation of whether learning is actually occurring and what to do when it isn't.

• Instructional solutions that are built once and neglected.

Solution

Designing and implementing learning solutions effective for diverse learners requires sophisticated and robust definitions of learning. Grounding these definitions in the cognitive and learning sciences provides the foundation for agile, research-based development and continuous improvement.

Diverse Learners™ Consulting provides:

• Instructional and UX design that focuses on learning, not teaching. This includes application of adaptive learning approaches to personalize learning and interactive simulations to engage deeper levels of knowledge and skills—including problem solving—in learning and assessment.

• Accessibility strategizing to meet WCAG and Section 508 requirements while implementing innovative learning solutions.

• Twenty+ years of experience designing and implementing Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to support diverse learners in various contexts.

• Design and implementation of research-based continuous improvement programs supporting the learning solutions. Ideally these are integrated with business development, product road-mapping, and process development.

• Application of exploratory data analysis techniques, including interactive data visualization. These are used during design and evaluation of products and services to support continuous improvement, as well as within products and services to support data-driven decision-making by end users, including learners and teachers/instructors/supervisors.

Diverse Learners™ consulting works with educational software companies, schools, corporate training and employee education companies, staffing and placement companies, and other organizations seeking to provide their students, employees, and clients opportunities to grow and succeed.