Partnership and Decentralized Design
The LW is designed as a central database of resources and matching functionality accessed through multiple user roles. The administration of the system is largely de-centralized to local and regional partners. The Learner Web is administered and maintained by Regions, defined by locality or service focus, which are often but not necessarily collaborations between various service providers. This decentralized design is an important component to the project’s sustainability as it encourages diverse usability supported by common infrastructure.
In addition to on-line resources, it is important that learners access diverse resources in their communities. Benefits to participating in the LW for local and regional partners include:
- Outreach to learners and referrals to their programs
- Easily accessed resources to help learners at all levels
- Facilitation of local and regional partnerships among providers for better service – (e.g., coordination between adult basic education providers and local libraries)
- Coordination of literacy volunteers as tutors and helpers
Local adult education programs, libraries, social service agencies, CBOs, employers and other organizations or individuals can easily refer their students, clientele or neighbors to the LW (sometimes setting them up with LW accounts and getting them going on the spot). At the same time, since participating communities map their local resources into the LW database, they also receive referrals.