ENGAGING THE ADULT LEARNER ONLINE PRESENTERS: Dr. Ruby Evans, Chair, School of Education Full-time Faculty Mathematics, Research & Education and Dr. Mary.

ENGAGING THE ADULT LEARNER ENGAGING THE ADULT LEARNER ONLINEONLINE

PRESENTERS:PRESENTERS:Dr. Ruby Evans, Dr. Ruby Evans, Chair, School of EducationChair, School of EducationFull-time FacultyFull-time FacultyMathematics, Research & EducationMathematics, Research & EducationandandDr. Mary H. Collins,Dr. Mary H. Collins,Full-time FacultyFull-time FacultyBusiness, Research & EducationBusiness, Research & Education16th Annual Sloan Consortium: International Conference on Online Learning

Orlando, FloridaNovember 5, 2010

Engaging the Adult Learner Online

During this presentation, we will focus on principles of adult learning that are likely to create a climate of inclusiveness and achievement for adult learners. 

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Strayer University Mission

Strayer University makes high quality, post-secondary education accessible to adults of diverse backgrounds and enables them to succeed in their careers and communities.

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Strayer University Core Values

The core values of our institution include:

• Academic quality – We are committed toeffective adult learning and rigorousacademic standards.• Student success – We provide theopportunity and supportive learningenvironment that enables adults toachieve their professional and personalgoals.• Educational access – We believe alldesiring and qualified adults have a rightto higher education.

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Preparing Adult Learners

Strayer University embraces andsupports its multicultural student body andprepares graduates to become leaders in

their chosen professions.

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ENGAGING THE ADULT LEARNER ENGAGING THE ADULT LEARNER ONLINEONLINE

Strayer University’s School of Strayer University’s School of Education (Adult Learners)Education (Adult Learners)

Providing teachers, trainers, and other education professionals with knowledge and skills to:

Achieve unity in diversity Appreciate global differences (cultural, ethnic, &

individual) Identify meaningful assessment measures for

diverse populations Impact a diverse world Use diverse instructional methods and materials

Adult Learner Profile

The vast majority of adult learners are financially independent, work part time or full time, havedependents, and must juggle many responsibilities with school.

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Who are today’s Adult Learners

Adult learners over age 24 currently comprise about44 percent of U.S. postsecondary students, but many millions more need postsecondary credentialsto succeed economically.

http://www.jff.org/sites/default/files/adultlearners.dol_.pdf

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Adult Learning

Adult education activity – main purpose is to acquire knowledge, information, or skill that requires instruction (could be self-instruction)

Needs of Adult Learners

The needs and expectations of adult learners are not always the same as those of traditional-aged students. 

These students report to the classroom setting with a plethora of invaluable life experiences, but equally diverse needs as adult learners. 

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Changing Demographics

• More adults and more older adults• Previously, ½ the population was

under age 16; • In 1990 less than 1 in 4 were

under age 16 and ½ were over age 33

• In 2004, the median age was 36 years, and is expected to increase to 40 by 2035

Changing Demographics

• Baby boomers – 70M people born between 1946 and 1964

• Have influenced all American social institutions – health care, housing, consumerism, retirement

• But the biggest change has been in education and work

• They control 4/5 of the money invested in savings and loan associations and 2/3 of all the shares on the stock market

Factors affecting adult learning

FactorsDemographics – adults outnumber

those under eighteen;

General population– % of population over

65 continues to grow;– population is much

better educated; – more cultural and

ethnic diversity

FactorsTechnology – has had enormous

impact on economy; Job-requirements—Adults MUST

continue their learning past formal schooling to function at work (new knowledge, updating old information, and retraining)

Changes in the last decade

During the late 1990s, about one of every five large U.S. employers downsized its workforce. In addition, more than a third reportedsimultaneously creating jobs in one division while shedding jobs in another (National Governors Association 2002). To remain employable in such an environment,workers continually need to learn new skills and adapt rapidly to new job roles.

http://www.jff.org/sites/default/files/adultlearners.dol_.pdf

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Changing Economy

A more fluid and volatile global economy is characterized by more frequent job and career change, which is an important factor in the growing demand for continual learning and skill enhancement.

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The ECONOMY and adult learners

Unemployment rate held at 9.6 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today (Bureau of Labor Statistics, September 2010).

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Unemployment rate among groups

Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (10.0 per- cent), adult women (8.0 percent), teenagers (26.1 percent), whites (8.8 per- cent), blacks (16.5 percent), and Hispanics (12.6 percent) showed little or no change in March 2010. The jobless rate for Asians was 7.5 percent...

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Effects of Globalization

• Loss of low-wage manufacturing jobs to less developed corners of the world

• Transnational companies operate outside national boundaries and control, with consumerism and commercialism supplanting all other interests

• Economic changes• Fewer jobs, more adult workers,

greater competition for same jobs

Technology

• Everyday life has been irrevocably influenced by technology – from ordering pizza by computer, to instant communication on the cell phone, to faxing requests

• Concurrent with technological changes has been an explosion in information

• Some say that half of what most professionals know when they finish formal training will be outdated in less than 5 years

Effects of Technology

• Creation and elimination of jobs• Change in where work is done – “Computer

technology frees labor from a particular location….Knowledge workers can work anywhere; they simply have to have access to a computer connection” (Gardner, 1996, p. 48).

Byproduct of technological age

Today’s adults need higher levels of academic and technical knowledge to remain employable in an information and service economy characterized by frequent job and career change.

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Technology Has Changed the Nature of Adult Learning

• Professionals whose knowledge is outdated in a few years,

• Skilled workers (e.g., nurses, business professionals, mechanics) who have to have sophisticated computer skills, and

• Adults who must learn new ways to shop and bank from home computers –

• All must be able to function in a fast-changing society –

• This necessitates CONTINUED LEARNING

Why Adults Participate in Learning

• Job-related motives– Preparing for a new job or occupation– Strong linkage between one’s work life

and participation in adult education

• Personal reasons– Self-fulfillment

Barriers to Participation

• Limited Time (Resource)• Fiscal Constraints (Money)• Self-Perception (Too old to learn)• Family responsibilities (Mainly

women)• Work demands (Often men)• Personal issues (Lack of

confidence, low personal priority, personal problems, health)

Principles of Adult Learning

Malcolm Knowles, pioneerAdult Learning

Malcolm Shepherd Knowles (1913 - 1997) central figure in US adult education in the second half of the twentieth century

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Knowles’ Theory of Adult Learning

Adults are autonomous and self-directed. 

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Knowles’ Theory of Adult Learning

Adults have accumulated a foundation of life experiences and knowledge.

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Knowles’ Theory of Adult Learning

Adults are goal-oriented.

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Knowles’ Theory of Adult Learning

Adults are relevancy-oriented.

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Knowles’ Theory of Adult Learning

Adults are practical.

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Knowles’ Theory of Adult Learning

Adults need to be shown respect.

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Adult Learners as Customers

“Customer is exactly how adult learners think of themselves, and they hold our institutions of higher education accountable for providing paid-for results and educational experiences that make a difference in their lives. They pay for these experiences with precious resources, not the least of which is their time. They are savvy, demanding customers who know how to shop. When they do not find what they want at one school, they transfer to another” (Hadfield, 2003, p. 19).

Role of Online Facilitator in Engaging the Adult Learner Online

• Assess the adult learner’s prior experiential learning

• Catalyst – involve students in role-plays or problem-based learning exercises where learners must solve a dilemma

• Foster critical reflection on experiences and challenge learners’ assumptions while validating personally constructed knowledge (Fenwick, 2003)

• Mentor the adult learner

Learning Tips for Effective Online Instructors of Adult Learners

Four Critical Elements of LearningNeed activities that

address:• MOTIVATION• Reinforcement• Retention• Transference

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Motivation Factors for Adult Learners

Social relationships

Social welfareEscape/Stimulation

External Expectations

Personal AdvancementCognitive interest

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Motivation of Learners

• Goal-oriented learner – use education to achieve some other goal

• Activity-oriented learner – participate for the sake of the activity itself and the social interaction

• Learning-oriented participants – seek knowledge for its own sake

Learning Tips for Effective Instructors

Four Critical Elements of Learning

• Motivation• REINFORCEMENT• Retention• Transference

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The Learner

• “Adults have more experiences, adults have different kinds of experiences, and adult experiences are organized differently” (Kidd, 1973. P. 46)

• Experience is a given in adult learning. Knowles (1980) speaks of a “growing reservoir of experience” that functions as “a rich resource for learning” (p. 44).

Need activities that draw upon adult Need activities that draw upon adult learner experiences. learner experiences.

The Learner

• Adults derive their self-identify from their experience. (p. 423)

• They define who they are in terms of the accumulation of their unique sets of experiences. (p. 423)

• “Because adults define themselves largely by their experiences, they have a deep investment in its value” (Knowles, 1980, p. 50).

Experience and Learning

• John Dewey (1938) – known for his classic, Experience and Education, postulated that “all genuine education comes about through experience (p. 13)

• For learning to happen through experience, the experience must exhibit the principles of continuity and interaction

Experience and Learning

• Continuity – experiences that provide learning are never just isolated events in time; learners must connect what they have learned from current experiences to those in the past, as well as see possible future implications

• Interaction – experience is what it is because of a transaction taking place between an individual and the environment

Learning Tips for Effective Instructors

Four Critical Elements of Learning

• Motivation• Reinforcement• RETENTION• Transference

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Memory, Cognition and The Brain

• Work with adults has been primarily with memory and aging

• Fear of memory loss is a common concern.

• IF adults have a decline in memory, it follows that the learning process may also be impaired

Online instructors need to be aware of Online instructors need to be aware of brain and cognition research. brain and cognition research.

Memory

• The storage capacity of working memory is estimated to be from five to thirty seconds.

• Long-term memory, however, has an enormous capacity for storage – retains information for long periods of time

• Memory processes are divided into three phases: encoding or acquisition phase; storage or retention phase; retrieval stage (how we get material out of storage)

Memory

• Working memory – part of long-term memory, part of short-term memory, or the mediator between sensory memory and either long-term or short-term memory. Working memory entails the active processing and storing of information

• Sensory memory – holds incoming information long enough for it to undergo preliminary cognitive functioning

Memory from Information Processing Perspective (DiVesta, 1987, p. 211)

• “Information from our environment is registered within sensory memory through our visual, auditory, and tactile senses.

• “Material is then selectively transferred or encoded into working memory. The control system determines what is important enough to be moved into working memory.”

Memory from Information Processing Perspective (DiVesta, 1987, p. 211)

• Flexibility with what can be done with the information in working memory. Can be used as cue to retrieve other information from long-term memory, can be used to form images, used in thinking, can be discarded.

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Sensory and Working Memory

• Few changes have been found in sensory memory as people age.

• In contrast, working memory can change as people age, especially “if people are asked to do anything with the information they are holding in short-term memory – to rearrange it, or recall it” in different order than given.

• Possibly older adults don’t have attention to resources than younger people do; or do not use the same strategies for dealing with working memory tasks. Older adults may process complex materials slower than younger adults

Long Term Memory

Three major differences in older versus younger learners:– Changes in encoding or

acquisition of material– The retrieval of information– The speed of processing

Older adults may be less efficient at organizing new material, may distort new material to fit their existing beliefs, information may be ignored.

Learning Tips for Effective Instructors

Four Critical Elements of Learning

• Motivation• Reinforcement• Retention• TRANSFERENCE

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Reflections on Learning in Adulthood

• “Because an adult’s learning is so closely tied to his or her life situation, adults are not inclined to engage in learning unless it is meaningful” (p. 432)

• Therefore, adults do not recall insignificant information as well as do younger learners.

Activities need to be relevant so that adult Activities need to be relevant so that adult learners can readily transfer these to daily learners can readily transfer these to daily life.life.

Six General Propositions of Experiential Learning (Kolb & Kolb, 2005)

• Learning is best conceived as a process (not in terms of outcomes)

• Learning is re-learning• Learners must move between

opposing modes of reflection and action and feeling and thinking

• Learning is holistic• Learning involves interactions

between the learner and the environment

• Learning is constructivist in nature

Learning from Experience requires four abilities (Kolb, 1984)

• Openness and willingness to involve oneself in new experiences (concrete experience)

• Observational and reflective skills so these new experiences can be viewed from a variety of perspectives (reflective observation)

• Analytical abilities so ideas and concepts can be created from their observations (abstract conceptualization)

• Decision-making and problem-solving skills so these new ideas and concepts can be used in practice

Engaging the Adult Learner Online

Strategies• Biographical Sketches• Case Studies• Critical Analyses• Critical thinking &

threaded discussion questions

• Collaborative activities• Debates• E-Portfolios

Strategies• Learning Communities• Live Chats• Multimedia, interactive

materials• Problem-solving• Project-based learning• Real-world applications• Reflection Journals• Tutorials

We Fit Your Life

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