Blog
Building SkillBlox with the Right Development Partner
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SkillBlox was envisioned as a free application to help teachers find, organize, and share digital learning resources aligned with the Teaching Skills That Matter (TSTM) framework. Rather than serving as a complete curriculum, it was meant to be a flexible lesson design tool, allowing educators to curate high-quality open educational resources into “Blox” of activities they could use directly with learners. The promise of SkillBlox was to make instructional planning more efficient, collaborative, and aligned with evidence-based teaching practices.
Event
The Forum 2026 - NAWB
The Forum (sponsored by the National Association of Workforce Boards) is the premier annual event for workforce leaders, employers, educators, and partners working to build stronger communities and competitive economies. It’s the one place where policy, practice, and partnership come together, equipping you with the insights, resources, and connections to drive impact at home.
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SXSWU EDU
SXSW EDU is 300+ sessions and workshops across 4 days in Austin, where inspiration and creativity are unlocked, with 15+ powerful films and performances, 2 trailblazing competitions, 50+ interactive exhibitions, and 120+ mentorship and networking opportunities that spark new possibilities in education.
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Horizons 2025
Horizons, presented by Jobs for the Future, is where we explore the newest ideas for transforming the field and center the voices of the people most impacted by the transformation. Join us at our annual summit when we return to New Orleans on June 10-11, 2025, to ignite change and take bold steps toward building a future that works for everyone.
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IDEAL Institute 2025
You're invited to join digital education leaders from across the country for three days as we share innovative practices and discuss solutions for shared challenges. Learn about the latest technology like Generative AI, learning models such as HyFlex and distance education, and resources used by state staff, programs, educators, and learners to build digital literacy skills and support goal achievement.
Blog
Designing an Application For and With Educators
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This blog is reposted from content previously shared on the TSTM-SkillBlox Research project page by the EdTech Center @ World Education.In the last TSTM-SkillBlox blog, the World Education team described our process for developing new SkillBlox features. Leveraging a design research approach to gather user insights about teaching and learning, our aim has been to create practical tools and advance research that supports skill-aligned instruction through open education resources (OER). Iterative Feature DevelopmentThrough focus group conversations,…
Blog
Building SkillBlox as Design and Development Research
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This blog is reposted from content previously shared on the TSTM-SkillBlox Research project page by the EdTech Center @ World Education. The follow-up to this blog, Designing an Application For and With Educators, is also available.World Education is building new features for SkillBlox as part of our partnership with the American Institutes for Research (AIR) in IES-funded design and development TSTM-SkillBlox research. Our qualitative approach is guided by Design Based Research (DBR) (Brown, 1992; McKenney & Reeves, 2018; Sandoval, 2014), through which…
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Evaluation Rubric: Edtech Technical Assistance Resources
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This rubric, developed by the CREATE Adult Skills Network team to review technical assistance resources for the CREATE Edtech Technical Assistance Library, can help you determine the quality of guidance provided in a technical assistance resource. Use of the scoring is optional; do use it to reflect on the potential of the resource as you comment.
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Linking Adult Education to Workforce Development in 2018–19: Early Implementation of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act at the Local Level
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The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act of 2014 includes new requirements and incentives to strengthen the link between its Title II -- adult education -- and the overall workforce development system. This report from a national evaluation of Title II examines the extent to which local adult education providers’ instructional approaches and coordination with other agencies in 2018-19 reflected this link and highlights the challenges providers reported collecting related performance data. A compendium provides detailed tables supporting the policy report. For more information about this report, visit the IES site here.
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Subject Area Frameworks for Adult Learners
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These aggregate frameworks provide a structure to support learning in five subjects relevant to adult learners: Civics Education, Digital Literacy, Financial Literacy, Health Literacy, and Workforce Preparation. They include domains, topics, and subtopics in each subject. The frameworks were developed by aggregating existing curricula, assessments, and frameworks used in adult education and compiling insights from organizations and individual instructors. Use them to support Teaching Skills That Matter-aligned instruction, to locate and use resources in SkillBlox, or as a checklist for planning instruction and assessment.
