Learning Technologies for Adult Literacy: A Scoping Review and Analysis of the Current State of Evidence

This scoping review of research explores the use of educational technologies for adult literacy, specifically for those with low literacy skills. The sample explores research published since 2010 across four major databases, yielding 21 relevant peer-reviewed articles published through the end of 2020. Half of the final included studies were conducted in North America (12 in US and 1 in Canada), and 8 were conducted in other countries around the world. Technology interventions ranged greatly across 15 separate interventions identified, allowing for little to no comparison. Methodologies and quality ranged significantly, with data mining, descriptive surveys, and quasi-experimental designs as the most predominant methods. Instructional strategies ranged greatly as well, from gamification to practice to direct instruction to word highlights. Among the included studies, there is one educational technology that has been studied extensively enough to suggest readiness for scalable implementation and randomized control trials along with promising early results from other interventions. Findings from the scoping review indicate that establishing a research agenda and community in this space, along with future studies detailing participant literacy levels and instructional design features with greater precision, as well as explicitly corresponding design to literacy skills, are significant ways in which educational technology researchers and developers could further the work on this important educational problem.