Sell to consortia of adult education providers and encourage institutions to buy technology together to lower cost and risk¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

The guide recommends that entrepreneurs sell to groups of organizations and encourage institutions to work together when possible. Consortia such as the Florida Adult and Technical Distance Education Consortium (FATDEC) make licensing and experimenting with technology-based solutions easier, more affordable, and less risky; their collective buying power lets small-budget providers access tools they otherwise could not and take risks on emerging technologies. FATDEC's coordinator calculated that an individual organization would pay almost double what the consortium pays its vendors. The guide also names California's 71 Adult Education Regional Consortia and national bodies (OTAN, NCSDAE/NAEPDC) as entry points for new ventures.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Entrepreneurs should offer flexible licensing agreements so providers of all sizes can benefit from new innovations

Constraints¶

• Not all existing consortia were established for purchasing purposes; they serve additionally as communities of practice

Target Learners¶

• adult education providers with small budgets and resource constraints
• low-skilled adult learners reached through member institutions

Target Learning Goals¶

• affordable access to technology-based adult basic education and training

Related Strategies¶

• Design adult-learning ed-tech with short lessons, visualizations, mobile-first simplicity, and contextualized integrated content
• Develop a shared landscape directory of skills-first tools with identified owners, costs, and accessibility limits
• Sell to consortia and groups of institutions with flexible licensing to ease buying and expand access for small providers
• Ten concrete action items for entrepreneurs preparing to launch ventures in the adult learning market

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Amber Laxton, Mike Berlin, Patti Constantakis, Ph.D. (2017). Accelerating Change: A Guide to the Adult Learning Ed-Tech Market. Digital Promise. https://digitalpromise.dspacedirect.org/items/36eceee2-6442-4c5c-8fa1-7b9e7eab4533