This scan is meant to be useful and accessible to a wide range of audiences involved in adult learning and health. This includes researchers, academics, practitioners, decision- makers, and others with a high interest in adult learning and health.

The intention is that the information in this scan would be helpful in ways such as:

1. enhancing everyday practice (identifying “effective practices” or models to use in one’s own context)
2. doing organizational strategic planning (doing one’s own environmental scan to determine organizational direction within the context of a particular sector)
3. writing proposals (identifying what has already been done so as not to “reinvent the wheel”)
4. undertaking research (building on what has already been done)
5. teaching and learning (identifying resources for health and adult learning)
6. developing advocacy initiatives (reviewing what has been done by other organizations)
7. developing capacity-building initiatives (finding out resources that could help)
8. setting policy (understanding issues from sites and research paper that focus on policy)
9. identifying sources of funding

This section outlines how 1) the scope and the shape of the environmental scan were developed, and 2) the systematic approach the researchers used to find information to include in the environmental scan.

The first step was to develop an outline for the environmental scan using the preliminary scan developed for the 2005 HKLC consultation as a starting point. We expanded and revised the topics from the preliminary scan to include the AWG’s present five priorities, and the settings for health and adult learning. At all times, we considered the three themes of the HLKC and the functions of the CCL as noted earlier.

The outline was presented to the AWG co-chairs for feedback in January 2006, and revised according to their feedback. The outline and shape of the scan was further revised as it became apparent that we should include new categories of information and adopt a more accessible way of presenting information.