How our digital learning platform can help educators teach ‘by stealth’

Michael Shaw is leading the product experience side creating ASDAN's new digital platform. He explains what the team is learning from speaking with educators. 

A phrase I have loved hearing recently is ‘education by stealth’. 

It is a term I picked up from one of the educators I interviewed while working on ASDAN's new digital learning platform. They described how they might assign learners certain practical challenges without even informing them they had started a programme. 

Only once the learners had completed the first few tasks – such as baking and decorating a cake or giving a manicure – would the teacher reveal that they had already partially completed a module, and that the photos the instructors had casually taken of their work were, in fact, evidence for their portfolio. 

Such stealthy approaches were particularly appreciated in places such as pupil referral units, where learners can arrive deeply switched off by traditional teaching methods. However, teachers in mainstream schools also shared how they often introduce the elements of ASDAN programmes they felt differ the most from what learners expect in a conventional classroom. "I want to show them ‘Isn't this course amazing?'", one educator said. 

So much of what educators like about the programmes does not happen with a learner at a computer, or even inside a standard classroom, but outside in the messy, real world. Approaches like this highlight why a digital learning platform for ASDAN needs to be unique. 

But how do you design an online learning system for learners who might not even realise they are learning yet? 

Happily, when we began building the platform a few months ago, we already knew that our two guiding principles would be flexibility and simplicity. 

Flexibility 

Teachers told me that what made ASDAN stand out was how flexible the challenges could be, sparking the creativity of learners across all abilities. One teacher spoke about a student who, frustrated by being too young for a politics GCSE, chose to tackle the ASDAN Citizenship Short Course independently. Another learner at the same school chose to theme their coursework for a Foodwise Short Course module around the culinary preferences of Harry Styles. 

We knew, then, that we would need to accommodate learners with a wide range of abilities and digital access, who might approach challenges in ways we could not always predict. On one hand, we might have learners who are highly self-motivated and tech-savvy, able to complete many aspects of an ASDAN programme independently on a laptop. On the other, there would be learners with complex special educational needs – or those who, for legal reasons, cannot use digital devices unsupervised – meaning the evidence-capturing would need to be done entirely by the educator. 

We also knew teachers and learners would want flexibility over whether to use digital or printed materials. A poll of more than 400 ASDAN educators last year found that 95% wanted the option of both formats, rather than being limited to one. 

One teacher I spoke with described situations where he preferred to give learners the challenges on pieces of paper - such as when they went out on a walk - and others where learners found it easier to type the responses on laptops instead of handwriting them. "It's that flexibility which is really, really useful for us," he said. 

We had to ensure our system could support both digital and printed activities, and crucially, that it worked seamlessly for educators and learners who switch between the two. 

That seamlessness was crucial, as the biggest benefit ASDAN teachers want from digital systems is to simplify their workflows. 

Simplicity 

Our second principle, simplicity, has also been invaluable when designing the user experience of the platform and responding to what educators have told us. While some ASDAN educators and learners have been using electronic portfolios for Short Courses, most only have the option to store evidence in physical folders with printed worksheets. This means printing out pictures, cutting and pasting them onto paper, before collating them and adding evidence reference numbers.  

Teachers described the large amounts of shelf space those folders take up and the anxiety they feel when discovering a skills sheet or another piece of evidence has gone missing. While schools that prefer physical folders should still have that option, the digital platform is designed to remove the need for it. 

We will be launching the learning platform this year with a selection of the most popular Short Courses, gradually expanding to include other programmes and qualifications. 

There is much more we could then do to improve the experience for both learners and teachers, which could be by providing richer supporting materials, systems to help students show their skills better to employers, and even personalising the guidance offered using AI. 

But for now, our priority is to ensure the platform is both flexible and simple. That is what we hear educators appreciate the most – whether they plan to teach by stealth or otherwise. 

ASDAN’s digital learning platform is set to launch in autumn 2025. To stay up to date with the latest news and developments about the platform and other exciting ASDAN initiatives for 2025, register for ASDAN eNews today.