Title of Study: U.S.A. Learns Six-Month Report

Author(s): Sacramento County Office of Education & Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan

Summary:

This report documents usage of the U.S.A. Learns website in its first year.  The website is a free resource designed to teach English to native Spanish-speaking adults, although usage data indicate that it is also being used in several Asian countries.  The site may be used by individuals with a desire to learn English on their own or by teachers who want to create online classes for English literacy.

Sponsoring entity(s): U.S. Department of Education, Office of Vocational and Adult Education

Date conducted: 2009

Location of the study: The U.S.A. Learns website.

Setting(s) addressed:

• Online learning

Targeted population(s):

• Adult English language learners

Primary sources of evidence used in the study or report:

• U.S.A. Learns database and Google Analytics

Primary Technology Application(s) Addressed:

• Online learning

Major education topic(s) addressed:

• English language learners
• Adult education

Major findings/conclusions:

• In the first year of the program almost 880,000 individuals visited the website, for a total of almost 3 million visits.
• Almost 70% of visits were return visits, and more than one third were from individuals who had visited 9 or more times.
• The average time per visit was almost 28 minutes, with more than 60 pages viewed per visit.
• Over 11,000 teachers registered at the site.

Practical implications of the findings:

• The U.S.A. Learns program has no marketing program or budget. However, when the program sent news releases to 10 media markets with large Hispanic populations usage of the site doubled within a week, and the increased usage was sustained over subsequent months.  This indicates a large untapped market for this type of program.
• The large percentage of return visitors and the amount of activity during each visit suggest that users find this approach to learning English useful.

Reviewer Comments:

The usage data indicates a very high interest in Hispanic communities across the U.S. for online ELL classes for adult learners.  However, data has not yet been collected to assess the efficacy of the program in improving the English language skills of the participants.