Fear Factors: Hidden Challenges to Online Learning for Adults

Online education and …, 2010

2018

Adult learners are different from younger learners. Many have taken Knowles’ ideas to work with adult learners as if they all are the same. Knowles described adult learners as more self-directed, willing to be responsible for what they do, unwilling to have teachers impose arbitrary information on them, ready to learn, task oriented, and experienced. Prather adds many adults have more immediate goals for their lives and careers. Kenner and Weinerman find adults want more collaborative relationships with professors. Adult students are unique and come to classes from a variety of backgrounds and circumstances, with different needs, wants, and learning preferences. Many students are prepared for college, while others are petrified. In this chapter, the authors argue that instructors should understand their students in order to help them be successful. Students are not alternative students; they are normal, intelligent people who can and will learn. Thus, the goal should be student-cent...

WEATHERING THE STORM: A TIME TO REINVENT ONLINE COURSES TO ADAPT TO RISING COSTS, CHANGING TECHNOLOGY, AND A CHANGING STUDENT POPULATION Gary Zucca National University School of Business and Management (UNITED STATES) Abstract The author argues that a storm is approaching higher education. University administrative costs are rising; also, tuition in both private and public universities in the United States has risen over 25 percent in the past ten years, and universities have been forced to pass on these rising costs to students. Students have reacted by either taking on more and more debt or seeking lower-cost opportunities for higher education. Changing technology is the second wave of the storm. Online courses, mobile devices, MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), and more robust learning management systems offer students low cost alternatives to traditional classroom courses. While some of these technologies have not met expectations, the stigma of online courses being “a technological correspondence course” is gone. Major universities like Harvard, Stanford, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology are partnering with providers such as edX and Coursera to provide low-cost online courses. Business and online education partnerships are also starting to form. Recently Starbucks began a program to award employees $1,500 to take online courses at Arizona State University. The third wave of the storm is the changing student population. The average age of university students is getting older as workers leave the workforce to update their skills. Technology is allowing workers to work off site, to collaborate with their colleagues, or to take online courses anywhere they can connect to the Internet. There is also a growing population of students who travel, have changing work schedules or changing life events that do not allow them to take traditional courses, whether online or in class. This study examines a representative sample of students and course outlines at a private, non-profit business school in California. Based on these findings, the author concludes that existing online courses that are modelled after classroom courses and do not meet the needs of a large number of working adults who have changing work and life events. Online courses that better meet the needs of this growing student population should include the following criteria. Theory guided. Online courses should be more that a collection of lectures and activities that were used in the classroom; they should be guided by relevant constructivist learning theory. Flexible course length. While there are administrative challenges, students should be able to complete courses as their work and life situation permits. Asynchronous. Students anywhere should have the same learning experience. Synchronous methods are inconvenient or impossible for students in different time zones or working changing schedules. Interactive. Students should develop their own understanding of concepts through meaningful interaction with other participants. Project based. Rather than completing a series of unrelated activities, students should leave the course with a project that will help them in their personal or professional life. Open access and available remediation resources. Adults entering or returning to the university have excellent organization and self-assessment skills, but may not test well on standardized tests and may need to refresh basic skills. The author discusses the rationale for the above criteria and gives examples from existing online courses. Keywords: Online course design, asynchronous, adult online education

2011

Professors of online courses often consider the type of learning styles the students may have when designing online learning opportunities. This study explored different issues that may impact the learning styles of learners who self-select online courses. The "Grasha-Riechmann student learning style scales" was used to determine the learning styles of students in both online and on-campus courses. The preliminary results indicate little variance in the learning styles of students taking classes either in online or face-to-face classes. Convenience is an important consideration in selection of both types of classes.

2002

Online teaching in higher education has become increasingly common, particularly as colleges and universities attempt to serve surging enrollments in some areas and as they look to expand their offerings in other markets. A primary consumer of these courses is the nontraditional student. Because these nontraditional students have unique learning needs that must be addressed in the online classroom, this study sought to identify the barriers to success nontraditional students face in the online learning environment and the strategies teachers can use to assist these students. Assessment strategies for nontraditional students are also studied. Participants were 57 nontraditional students and faculty members who completed an online questionnaire. Among the barriers identified were a lack of experience with technology, a lack of support systems for the online learner, time constraints, and other aspects of the intangible aspects of supporting a culture of technology. Teacher responses reflected the "home-grown" responses of faculty members dealing with issues on a daily basis and responding with their own creative strategies. Assessment strategies identified were consistent with those of virtually any academic environment. The barriers and strategies identified were indicative of a labor market, college faculty, trained to perform the function of instruction in a live class situation but being asked to perform differently. (Contains 13 references.) (SLD) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document.

Distance Education, 2005

Although the literature regarding the attrition and retention of online students covers high school to community college to graduate programs (Prete, 2011; Nelson, 2007; Gomez, 2013), youths and adults (LeDuc-Williams, 2013; Grover, 2013; Gingerich, 2015), women and men (Wladis & Hachey, 2015), and everything in-between (Cochran 2014, Lehman & Conceição, 2014), the published research on online retention mostly misses the population known as the Millennials. The body of literature focuses on Millennial retention in traditional brick-and-mortar education programs (McGlynn, 2005; Porter, 2009; Fissel, 2013). Academic online institutions need to formally anticipate the different attrition and retention factors related to Millennials, who represent the majority of adult graduate-level online learners today. Born between 1980 and 2000, this particular demographic is characterized as the Trophy Generation and as digital natives with an entirely different set of needs and wants from online courses and programs. This paper will offer a number of (pre)cautionary considerations for online course authors and instructors to help them effectively navigate the obstacles to educating graduate students who are more technologically savvy than and very different from their instructors. These considerations include learning management system equity between teachers and students, flexible and authentic assessments, and greater teacher access.

26 th Annual Midwest Research-to-Practice …, 2007

Education. We welcome you as participants and presenters at this year's conference. The theme this year is "Building Communities with Sustainability and Social Capital." We are honored to have faculty, graduate students, and practitioners from the Midwest and beyond here with us

This study investigated adult student experiences with instructors in online classes. Using expectancy violations theory as a lens, we conducted 22 interviews to understand reasons students enroll in online classes, expectations for instructors, and behaviors instructors employed that may or may not meet expectations. We conducted a thematic analysis and uncovered students expected clarity, respect, and intentional course design from instructors. Behaviors facilitating effective communication and enabling learning actually led to positive outcomes, while the poor use of pedagogical tools and behaviors stopping the learning process led to negative outcomes. Recommendations to meet adult student needs online are proposed.

UNA FABULA ESPIRITUAL