Digital Resilience in the American Workforce: Findings From a National Landscape Scan on Adult Digital Literacy Instruction

About the Landscape Scan

Digital Resilience in the American Workforce: Findings from a National Landscape Scan on Adult Digital Literacy Instruction used a mixed-methods approach to answer our core research questions, including a literature review, interviews with key stakeholders, a questionnaire for leaders and practitioners, a market scan, a learner questionnaire, and learner focus groups. The process unearthed a wide array of information, including instructional content and strategies, assessment needs and tools, digital access and equity models, and professional development models and resources. At the same time, stakeholder interviews confirmed that educators need resources and support to build learners’ digital resilience effectively. Many challenges and gaps emerged as well—in particular, resources to support diverse learners and a lack of alignment across educators, employers, and policymakers about what digital skills are of highest priority and how to measure them.

The DRAW landscape scan serves multiple goals. First, it informs the resources and professional development created through DRAW. Second, it pulls together much-needed information, resources, practices, and models for adult education professionals and others engaged in digital literacy instruction, digital equity and access initiatives, research, and policy. In addition to the report, the DRAW team published the Digital Digest blog series and will release additional briefs, deep dives, and crowdsourced resource lists to share more of what we uncovered through the scan.

The report outlines significant findings and opportunities for impact across six areas:

• The need to define digital skills and resilience and ensure that definitions and frameworks are nimble enough to reflect rapid technological changes and adult learners’ and employers’ differing needs.
• Strategies for advancing access and digital equity, given that gaps in access to devices, connectivity, and opportunities to develop digital skills, exacerbate disparities in educational attainment and income.
• Promising instructional approaches and practices that work for various settings – including ESOL and GED classrooms, reentry services, integrated education, and training programs for diverse learners, including older adults, neurodiverse individuals, and those with emerging literacy.
• Improved curation of existing digital skill content and curriculum. The Digital Skills Library, for example, includes digital resources in multiple languages, materials that emphasize digital resilience, and more that can be adapted for English language learners, older adults, and neurodiverse individuals.
• Tools and practices for assessing and validating digital skills, and the potential for certifications and badges to better communicate learners’ digital skills to instructors, employers, and educational institutions.
• Providing professional development for practitioners, including strategies to help build instructors’ confidence with technology and ability to model digital resilience in the classroom.