Penn Foster Group

Challenge 

Providing new pathways to opportunity 

Penn Foster Group was founded in 1890 by Thomas Foster, a distance-learning pioneer who wanted to help coal miners improve their safety at work. Today, the group combines Penn Foster, CareerStep, Ashworth College, James Madison High School, EHR Go, ALCS.com, the New York Institute of Photography and other remote education and training platforms. Collectively, these platforms empower a diverse set of learners to unlock opportunities through career-aligned training and education.  

“Our goal is to provide affordable learning that’s accessible to everyone,” says Lauren Stash, director of communications. “We have a diverse learner population, and we also work with partners to maximize the opportunities to complete our programs. Right now, we’re investing heavily in the quality of our learning and the learner experience, with the ambitious goal of getting 150,000 annual completions each year by 2029.”  

Penn Foster Group’s students often need to juggle their studies with the competing demands of full-time employment and family life. The organization aims to keep its education services as flexible and affordable as possible, as well as aligning them with the practical skills that are most in demand in the workplace.  

To enhance the accessibility and convenience of its services, Penn Foster Group set out to revolutionize the learning experience by integrating powerful text-to-speech capabilities into its programs, empowering students to engage with content in a more flexible and personalized way. 

“As an online education provider, we want to meet students wherever they are, which means thinking way beyond the confines of a traditional classroom environment,” comments Kara Sochovka, director of digital assets and platform management. “As the parent of a child with dyslexia, I know how much of a difference it can make when students can engage with content in a way that suits their learning style. The ability to listen to course content rather than reading it can also be valuable for people with busy lives, who might only get time to study while doing chores or driving to work.” 

Solution 

Giving a voice to educational materials 

Penn Foster Group transformed its courses by integrating ReadSpeaker’s lifelike online and offline text-to-speech capabilities into its D2L Brightspace platform. The results of a pilot were outstanding, with a 54% increase in 30-day course completion rates and a dramatic reduction in the average time for students to take their first exams—from 13 days to just 9. This successful integration not only boosted efficiency but also enhanced the overall learning experience. 

“ReadSpeaker fits really nicely into our learner-centric and differentiated learning model,” says Dr. Andy Shean, chief learning officer. “We had been looking for ways to make our learning experience more accessible for our unique student population. The combination of ReadSpeaker and Brightspace enables far more multimodal learning experiences, which can make a huge difference if you don’t have the time to sit at a computer and read, or if you’re naturally an auditory learner.” 

Delivering more effective learning  

Within the Brightspace platform, learners can easily access ReadSpeaker webReader, which reads HTML content aloud, offering a customizable experience with the option to choose their preferred voice, adjust reading speed, define and translate words, and much more. For digital documents, including students’ personal notes, ReadSpeaker provides the same powerful features. The seamless integration with Brightspace ensures that these tools work effortlessly across any supported device, with no software installation required, making it simple for learners to engage with content on their terms. 

“We know from our work in the field and from learning sciences that students learn better and more effectively when they can interact with content in a variety of formats,” remarks Dr. Shean. “ReadSpeaker in Brightspace is a way to create a learning environment that’s more accessible for more students.”   

Boosting accessibility for all  

As well as assisting busy learners and those with reading difficulties, ReadSpeaker also helps students with impaired vision to access course materials—extending Penn Foster Group’s existing commitment to providing inclusive education. D2L’s Learning Services team has embedded accessibility into its HTML templates, ensuring that Penn Foster can align with WCAG guidelines to maximize the reach and inclusivity of its learning materials for all users.  

“D2L’s accessibility testers have been a huge help,” notes Sochovka. “They are always willing to assist when we have any accessibility questions or need to check our WCAG compliance.” 

“Having D2L as a partner means having access to a network of tested partners like ReadSpeaker that are already integrated and easy to engage with,” adds Dr. Shean. “That has enabled us to customize the experience in a way that I don’t think we could have done independently.”  

Result 

Fitting learning into busy lives  

One of the key benefits of embedding ReadSpeaker in Brightspace is the flexibility and convenience it brings to Penn Foster Group’s learners. “The clear feedback is that people are happy to have the speech option available, it’s made learning so much easier,” comments Sochovka. “Our numbers show that 25% of learners find it beneficial to use ReadSpeaker for tests. They also mention the multitasking: whether they’re learning while doing chores or commuting, they have found it extremely helpful.” 

“For a lot of our learners, especially adults, education is not their only focus in life,” adds Stash. “It’s very important that wherever they go, they can take their programs with them. With ReadSpeaker in Brightspace, we can work better for all types of people, enabling them to learn from anywhere.” lationship we have with him.” 

Supporting a diverse population 

The ability to listen to course materials is also a great benefit for learners whose first language is not English—which is the case for many Penn Foster Group’s target population. 

“We talk about trying to meet students where they are in terms of their skillsets,” says Sochovka. “If English isn’t your first language, having ReadSpeaker read the content out loud while you follow along with the text is a powerful reinforcer.” 

Keeping education financially accessible 

“At Penn Foster Group, we provide radically affordable education with a large portion of our students graduating with zero debt,” says Dr. Shean. “We’re one of the only options for a population who lead busy lives and don’t have a ton of extra money to get the skills to take that next step in their lives.”  

The combination of ReadSpeaker and Brightspace is helping Penn Foster Group fulfill its mission to provide financially accessible education by making it more convenient and effective for non-traditional learners to complete their courses. 

“We serve a lot of lower-income individuals, and we want to make sure we keep meeting them where they are,” comments Stash. “ReadSpeaker in Brightspace helps us offer a high-quality solution that really helps them advance in their lives and achieve better economic outcomes.” 

“The ability to use ReadSpeaker on a mobile phone is a real advantage,” adds Sochovka. “For many of our students, a laptop may not be affordable.” 

Transforming lives through education 

A key strategic goal for Penn Foster Group is to maximize student completion rate by ensuring that learners have the tools and support they need to finish their planned courses. By adding tools such as ReadSpeaker to its Brightspace LMS, the organization is helping learners find the time and maintain the motivation to attain their educational goals. 

“Our learners are people who choose to do it for themselves,” comments Stash. “They have to be empowered and self-motivated to get through their programs. And you can see how emotionally meaningful it is when they cross that stage to get their diploma, what it can mean for their lives and their careers. It underscores why we do all of this work with partners like D2L.” 

“For this kind of solution, testing, learning and iteration are really key,” concludes Dr. Shean. “By iterating from our pilot, we were able to scale ReadSpeaker to our entire student population, which resulted in increased student engagement and increased completion. We want to be a true game-changer, providing affordable, career-aligned learning experiences that empower learners to graduate into a job with little to no debt. With ReadSpeaker and Brightspace, we’re on this path to be transformative.”