Co-creating our future: A new digital blueprint for the IB ecosystem

The big picture

Every day, millions of IB students and educators rely on digital tools. To meet their evolving needs, we must change how we develop those digital tools. This digital blueprint is our commitment to make that change and co-create a future where every learner and educator can flourish.

“AI and other digital technologies are reshaping education with the same force as the arrival of electricity and the dawn of the internet. This transformation brings opportunities and challenges that demand the IB redefine its role and ambition in the digital space.”

—Olli-Pekka Heinonen, IB’s Director General

“Co-Creating Our Future is our blueprint for re-shaping the digital landscape of our IB ecosystem. Its goal: to enable our learning system to flourish in the AI age. This blueprint will guide our digital investments, unlock new partnerships, and catalyze innovation. By sharing it, we aim to align the IB community on a well-defined digital pathway, build strong partnerships, and establish clear roles.”

—Loic Tallon, IB’s Chief Digital Officer

Why: The urgency for change

Three organizational imperatives drive the need for change:

1. closing the gap between current digital systems and the needs of our schools, educators, students, and the wider IB community
2. enabling the digital innovation required to deliver the IB’s 2032 strategic goals
3. creating the market conditions for our community to benefit from EdTech and partner solutions that reflect IB values and learning goals.

Technology underpins daily life at the IB. Our systems serve 5,800+ schools, 230,000 educators and nearly 2 million students. We recognize the need to rapidly develop the functionality, design and performance of the IB’s technologies to meet the evolving needs and ambitions of our community.

Incremental improvements are likely to be insufficient. We see a need to change how we develop our digital tools to meet today’s needs and tomorrow’s opportunities. We need these changes to achieve our goal of enriching the education of 5 million young people per year from more globally representative communities by 2032.

Technology is key to achieving this goal through our three strategic drivers.

• Education for human and planetary flourishing requires that we design responsible, data-informed technology that makes learning more responsive and personalized while strengthening the relationship between educators and students.
• Bridging global education gaps requires us to use technology to increase access to an IB education around the world, reduce the cost of delivering programmes, bring IB World Schools to more communities, and ensure all schools use technology that is secure, equitable and reflects IB values.
• Being a role-model education system requires us to build a smart, connected IB community that supports ongoing innovation, attracts EdTech partners aligned to IB values and learning goals, and keeps improving through shared learning and feedback.

Three commitments will guide how we work with technology

What: A new approach to digital

Moving forward, three commitments will shape how we work with technology across our complex ecosystem of schools, educators, family support, community members, governments, regulators and EdTechs companies.

1. Systems thinking. We will prioritize the interconnectedness and interdependencies of schools, educators, students, and the wider IB ecosystem. Expanding online learning, digital professional development, or new digital assessments affects the whole ecosystem, so we will consider relationships and ripple effects to ensure benefits are shared. Key initiatives include:
   • ecosystem insights: building a clear, data-informed understanding of the digital capabilities, maturity and needs of our community to better direct our investments
   • collective transformation: designing our major technology initiatives with consideration for actors across the IB ecosystem
   • centralized library: creating a shared library of policies, tools and standards to support the IB ecosystem, with a focus on helping schools and educators overcome resource and capability constraints with digital.
2. Partnerships. We will collaborate more closely with EdTechs companies, NGOs and other partners to deliver scalable solutions that meet the needs of our community. We will enable our partners to more easily access and integrate with IB systems. Our ambition is that the IB becomes the learning ecosystem of choice for innovators in education. Key initiatives include:
   • integration: offering shared data formats, application programming interfaces (APIs), software kits and login systems to easily connect with IB systems
   • partner recognition: developing a partner-recognition process aligned with IB values and learning approaches
   • marketplace: creating a marketplace connecting schools, educators and students with IB-aligned digital resources, tools and services.
3. Mindful innovation. We will be deliberate in our adoption of new tools: embracing innovation while setting boundaries to keep learning focused, safe and meaningful. This approach recognizes that learning happens in the interaction between the learner and the world, with technology as only one contributor. Technology must support, not distract from, meaningful learning, with human connection as its foundation. Key initiatives include:
   • usage guidance: providing clear standards and guidance on the effective use of technology to enable meaningful learning
   • AI adoption: providing tools, guidelines and prompts to educators to support them in harnessing AI’s potential while maintaining ethical, practical approaches
   • innovation programme: running structured experiments across established and emerging systems to test innovations without compromising the stability or quality of the learning experience.

Our commitments for a digital future

How: Building together

Building this future must be a shared effort with leaders and innovators across the IB community. Two workstreams will drive this forward.

Co-creation with the IB ecosystem. We will collaborate with the IB community to refine our blueprint and experiment boldly as we implement it. We will develop expertise in user research, prototyping, data-informed iteration and inclusive design, creating feedback loops and partnerships to co-design sustainable solutions. The next steps will include:

• engaging schools, educators, and the IB ecosystem globally to define needs and create digital solutions
• holding co-creation workshops to generate, prototype and test ideas
• launching an EdTech partners forum to bring together companies, educators and innovation leaders to build a shared vision, guidelines, principles and a roadmap
• developing a shared technology architecture focused on simple user journeys, a refined portfolio of digital products and services that meet our community’s needs, and clear boundaries between what is provided by the IB and what is provided by third parties.

Develop platforms and data as shared services. Create a technology platform and shared data services that enable our community to build tools integrated with IB systems. These services must be easy to use, secure, scalable and designed for seamless integration while ensuring strong data protection. The features must include:

• access management so every user has the right permissions and secure entry to IB platforms, systems and data
• community management to support engagement and collaboration, helping to build, moderate and sustain vibrant user communities
• utility software, including APIs and software development kits (SDKs), to provide reliable, scalable solutions for critical user needs
• cybersecurity and privacy safeguards to protect systems, data and users—safeguarding confidentiality, integrity and availability.

Conceptual diagram of a modern technology architecture for the IB ecosystem

1. Integrated user experiences across digital products created by the IB and third-party providers

2. Partnership programme that offers IB technology access and integration for third-party providers aligned with IB values and learning goals

3. Foundational technology and data services on which the ecosystem can build

4. More technology resources to support schools and educators to overcome resource and capability constraints