Increasing Engagement and Student Persistence Through Distance- and Blended-Learning Models: What the Research Says and Which Practices Work

For decades, California adult education has been developing tools to address how changes in technology in turn change society and therefore learning processes. The focus has been in three areas: (1) infrastructure— resources and access; (2) uses for technology— instructional, assessment, and student information systems; and (3) approaches to creating learning environments— distance learning, professional development, and communication. In the spring of 2021, a team of California adult educators examined the research and shared their practice for offering and greatly expanding high quality distance learning in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The end result of their work was a brief published by CALPRO that can be found here http://calpro-online.org/documents/CALPRO-Research-Brief-15-508.pdf.