Learning Frameworks: Tools for Building a Better Educational Experience. Lumina Issue Paper

Learning frameworks are tools that specify learning outcomes and/or competencies that define, classify, and recognize educational, learner, and industry expectations of knowledge, skills, and abilities at increasing levels of complexity and difficulty. They allow for alignment, translation, and mapping of learning through various spaces in order to capture learning that can be valued and recognized by education, industry, and the military. This paper outlines the roles that learning frameworks play in the emerging ecosystem of connected learning--why they matter and how they can bring disparate pieces of the learning ecosystem together for greater portability and documentation of learning in all the places it unfolds. It concludes with a focus on technological innovations as a source of future directions for learning frameworks connectivity.