UCF's Center for Distributed Learning (CDL), Course Development & Web Services (CDWS), and Research Initiative for Teaching Effectiveness (RITE) are the founding partners of P-ADL. CDL and CDWS were formed in 1996 specifically to coordinate UCF's online programs and to support faculty and course development for UCF's online learning initiative, respectively. Created in 1999 out of UCF's acclaimed Distributed Learning Impact Evaluation to provide research support for all of UCF's instructional modes, RITE has collaborated in authoring scores of research studies focused on UCF's online initiative and other teaching/learning environments. Due to the international reputation garnered by UCF's online learning initiative, personnel from all three departments are routinely asked to consult with other organizations seeking to implement or improve their own online learning programs.

Brevard Community College (BCC) joined P-ADL as a partner in 2005. BCC's Virtual Campus offers several online degrees and pursues instructional innovations for online learning. BCC brings expertise in learning object development to the partnership and benefits from increased faculty development resources.