The mission of the National Adult Literacy Agency (NALA) is to ensure that every adult in Ireland has the literacy, numeracy, and digital skills to participate fully in society. To meet the diverse needs of learners and make returning to education more accessible, NALA developed Learn with NALA—a flexible online learning platform powered by D2L Brightspace. The programme helps 3,500+ learners each year build skills, confidence and recognised qualifications—often overcoming barriers that might otherwise prevent them from returning to education.
Challenge
Reaching adult learners beyond traditional education.
The National Adult Literacy Agency (NALA) is an independent member-based non-profit organisation whose mission is to improve adult literacy across Ireland. Founded in 1980, NALA provides educational programmes, plays a key role in shaping government policy, and works with other organizations to remove literacy-related barriers.
The scale of the challenge is significant. “Recent international surveys show that in Ireland, 21% of adults have unmet literacy needs, 25% have unmet numeracy needs, and 27% have unmet digital literacy needs,” explains Elaine Cohalan, Learning Strategy and Education Manager at NALA.
For many of these individuals, the path to traditional in-person educational opportunities is not straightforward. Learners may:
- have had negative experiences of education in the past
- lack confidence or trust in formal learning environments
- face stigma around returning to education
- struggle to balance their studies with work and/or caring responsibilities
- live in areas where local education services are unavailable or inconvenient to access
For decades, NALA has delivered remote learning opportunities to overcome these obstacles. From correspondence courses and radio and TV programmes to an online learning platform, learners can improve their literacy on their own terms. The courses are entirely free, and learners can access them either directly or through 150 local partner organisations.
Previously reliant on a highly customised platform, the online learning courses became increasingly difficult to scale and maintain, especially as demand for digital learning increased and technology and regulations evolved. To continue meeting learner needs and support long-term, sustainable growth, NALA needed a more flexible and futureready solution.
Solution
Designing for access, flexibility and long term sustainability
After a thorough evaluation and competitive tendering, NALA selected D2L Brightspace as the basis for its new online platform, Learn with NALA.
“The biggest factor in our choice of D2L was the potential to create a sustainable, long term model for online learning,” recalls Cohalan. “We appreciated D2L’s commitment to evolving with emerging technologies, as well as providing a high level of support.”
Working with D2L Learning Services, NALA designed a tailored learning experience grounded in accessibility, flexibility and learner autonomy. This approach reflects NALA’s long-standing belief that adult learners should be able to learn on their own terms and build on the knowledge and experience they already have.
Courses are built using:
- Universal Design for Learning and Universal Design for Instruction to support inclusivity
- Plain English guidelines to assist comprehension
- Recognition of prior learning to allow learners to progress faster based on their existing skills
- Flexible, self-directed pathways to help everyone learn at their own pace
D2L Brightspace further supports accessibility through text-to-speech functionality, engaging content delivery, and the freedom to continuously refine the learner experience.
Boosting data-driven decision-making to improve outcomes
NALA uses Performance+ and learning analytics to track each learner’s journey from sign up to learning to assessment and beyond.
“We are big believers in making decisions driven by data and trends,” says Cohalan.
By analysing the full learner journey, NALA determined key moments where learners needed additional support. For example, when data showed that engagement often dropped after onboarding, the team introduced targeted welcome emails with additional support content. Using the intelligent agents tool, NALA can identify learners who might need extra help and intervene early, enabling more learners to stay on track and succeed.
Result
Expanding access, improving outcomes, and building confidence
Since launching Learn with NALA, the organisation has significantly expanded its reach and impact. Each year, the programme supports between 3,500 and 4,000 active learners across online and blended learning environments. Individuals from a wide range of backgrounds, including those in marginalised and underserved groups, gain skills such as reading and listening, writing, and data handling.
Learners can choose to receive a NALA certificate for completing a course or take an additional assessment to receive a nationally recognised qualification. So far, NALA learners have earned more than 13,000 qualifications, highlighting the essential skills built through Learn with NALA.
But for NALA, success goes beyond completion rates.
“Success looks different for everyone,” says Cohalan. “Even small things can make a big difference: we’ve had grandparents who have been delighted because they’ve learned how to set up a video call with their grandchildren for the first time.”
One learner shared: “The course has allowed me to gain qualifications in my own time and helped me discover skills that I never thought I had in the first place.”
The programme is delivering impact at both the macro and the individual level:
- enabling learners to return to education
- supporting people to stay in employment or progress in their careers
- helping individuals build confidence in everyday life
- creating opportunities for further learning and development
International recognition for expanding access to learning
Recently, NALA’s global leadership in promoting literacy for all has been recognised with a UNESCO International Literacy Prize (Confucius Prize). The Learn with NALA programme stood out for its accessible approach, reaching learners from marginalised groups and rural communities, and offering learner-led access to education.
“We always knew that we were doing really important work,” comments Cohalan. “But getting global recognition from UNESCO helps us validate the impact that we have, as well as putting more weight into funding applications.”
Supporting long-term impact through partnership
NALA continues to collaborate closely with D2L, helping the team focus on its core mission while maintaining a sustainable approach to adopting new features.
D2L has supported NALA in:
- navigating complex implementation requirements
- deploying integrations for accessibility
- exploring new approaches to engagement
- building a future-ready learning environment
“We want to constantly evolve and improve our offering, and D2L is aligned with us on that front. The technology is important, but the most critical thing in the partnership has been how fantastic the individual engineers and support staff at D2L are.”Elaine Cohalan Learning Strategy and Education Manager, NALA
Focusing on sustainability and continuous improvement
Looking to the future, NALA aims to deliver not just growth, but improved quality and meaningful impact.
Key priorities include:
- enhancing accessibility through ReadSpeaker
- upgrading content through Creator+
- rolling out CRM integrations
- expanding data-driven insights and reporting
- refining learner success frameworks
- exploring AI-enriched learning and support
With a refined approach to accessibility, engagement, and reporting, the NALA team hopes to empower learners to reach their own personal learning goals, rather than just relying on standard evaluation metrics. Together with D2L, NALA has built a scalable, sustainable, and adaptable learning model, helping more adults across Ireland gain the skills they need to participate fully in their lives and communities.
Discover Brightspace for education, visit https://www.d2l.com/en-eu/solutions/higher-education/.
Interviewee:
- Elaine Cohalan, Learning Strategy and Education Manager