Every learner deserves unlimited unbundled opportunities to explore, engage and define experiences that advance their progress along a co-designed educational pathway.
Since the advent of formal education, learning has been bundled. The time for change is now.
In order to shift to a truly unbundled system of learning, we must get some clarity and alignment on some core terms.
Six core principles guide the unbundled system. As each element of the system is built, designers should evaluate and reflect around these core principles.
For an unbundled system to meet all of the core principles, core structural elements must exist. A fully decentralized education system would entail a distributed set of learning experiences to which any education creator might contribute.
Unbundling the learning ecosystem occurs at the policy and systems level. Policy includes laws and rules that allow for unbundled learning. Systems are structures that support unbundled learning.
Most typical education ecosystems require permission. A fully unbundled ecosystem may be permissionless, that is a student can choose whatever pathway they like with whomever they would like and learn whatever they would like.
Unbundled systems need to decrease the grain size to the learning experience level so that learners can build pathways that make sense relative to their future goals by reassembling a set of learning experiences.
Once the ecosystem is unbundled, the opportunities must be curated in an equitable, accessible format. A variety of efforts exist to begin to move this unbundled curation system forward.
Learners in partnership with coaches co-design and bundle learning experience pathways that consist of content access, skill development, instruction, and assessment from a variety of sources.
Each learner must have a Learning and Employment Record (LER). These records, likely built on blockchain technology and stored on a digital wallet, document any learning experiences where a learner has shown proficiency around a set of competencies or earned a credential or certification.
Structures must be built to support the marketplace. This is feasible within the parameters of both Web2 and Web3.
Very few systems have completely unbundled. Some core challenges still remain.
Solutions already exist in the ecosystem and need to be combined and scaled.
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The Unbundled Ecosystem matrix describes learning experience flexibility v. degree of unbundling.
Most formal learning in the United States occurs within the structured model. The system is less flexible (or at least flexible only within a set of structured choices).
The personalized model includes systems that have incorporated a personalized learning approach, offer significant course choice (whether on-site or online), and have built learner control over pace and choice into the model. South Carolina’s Personalized Learning Initiative and Dallas Independent School District Personalized Learning Initiative are robust examples of state-level and district-level scaled initiatives. Competency-based schools such as the online VLACS and Building 21 are among many learning models currently being implemented. Transcend’s Innovative Models Exchange provides a searchable database of examples.
Ecosystem models seamlessly integrate out-of-system and in-system learning, including internships, apprenticeships, and afterschool programs for credit. The national Afterschool Alliance advocates for robust learning outside of school and credit for these experiences. An example of this is the New Hampshire Learn Everywhere initiative, which allows a larger ecosystem of experiences to count for high school credit. The control is still at the state level, however. All of these examples increase permeability between the ecosystem and the school within the ecosystem.
The network marketplace model is not yet fully realized. ReSchool Colorado works alongside families to help build a personalized, goal-oriented learning experience (see gamified version, Revolve, for exploration). Online providers like Outschool and KidPass are building marketplaces, but they are not connected with in-system learning and survive as extracurricular learning.
Unifying the learning ecosystem (both in- and out-of-system) through a readily accessible marketplace of verified learning experiences and allowing learners to design within this unbundled space meets the needs of many more learners than current models.
