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Helping Our Students Succeed Facts About Open Campus Students and Strategies for Their Success
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Page 1: The Adult Learner at FSCJ

Helping Our Students Succeed

Facts About Open Campus Studentsand Strategies for Their Success

Page 2: The Adult Learner at FSCJ

An IntroductionHow We Compare to Traditional

Institutions

Page 3: The Adult Learner at FSCJ

The Traditional University…

Often focuses on 18-22 year-olds with parental support, immediately transitioning from high school to college.

Often focuses on strategies for engaging students on a face-to-face basis

Often focuses only on students on Bachelor’s and Graduate school tracks

Page 4: The Adult Learner at FSCJ

But FSCJ Is Not a Traditional University, and Open Campus

Is…Online! With a background as an open-access

community college, FSCJ enjoys much diversity among our students

FSCJ aims not only to graduate students with Associate’s and Bachelor’s degrees, but also to remediate, prepare students for college level work, acclimate students to the world of higher ed, accommodate non-traditional students, and prepare students for vocations

Page 5: The Adult Learner at FSCJ

A Few FactsAbout FSCJ and Open Campus Students

Page 6: The Adult Learner at FSCJ

Full-Time Enrollment OnlineUnduplicated students in online courses (n=21,480)

Academic Year 2010/2011 (terms 20111, 20112 and 20113)

FallSpring

Summer

0

200

400

600

800

1,000

1,200

1,4001310

348

39

Source: JIRA Data Report – October 2011

Page 7: The Adult Learner at FSCJ

Part-Time Enrollment OnlineUnduplicated students in online courses (n=21,480)

Academic year 2010/2011 (terms 20111, 20112 and 20113)

FallSpring

Summer

0

2,000

4,000

6,000

8,000

10,000

12,000

14,00013385

5728

1804

Source: JIRA Data Report – October 2011

Page 8: The Adult Learner at FSCJ

Degree CompletersNumber of students who took online courses to complete their degree

Duplicated headcount - many students earned multiple awards.Academic year 2010/2011 (terms 20111, 20112 and 20113)

AA AAS AS BAS BS BSN TCert VCert

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

30002843

88549

16517 22

533

90

Source: JIRA Data Report – October 2011

Page 9: The Adult Learner at FSCJ

Developmental Students

More than 70% of FSCJ students take at least one developmental course.

This means many of them come to us not yet in possession of college-level skills.

Page 10: The Adult Learner at FSCJ

Open Campus Students:52% Are Older than 25 and the Majority Are

Female

Fe-male66%

Male34%

Source: JIRA Data Report – October 2011

4%

17%

26%

20%

34%< 1919-2021-2425-2930+

Page 11: The Adult Learner at FSCJ

What Do All TheseStatistics Mean?

Many – in fact, most – of our students are adults.

Therefore, androgogy is an important consideration.

An incredible number of students, from all backgrounds, are now taking online classes in pursuit of everything from certificates to Bachelor’s degrees.

Faculty should take a variety of student goals into consideration

Page 12: The Adult Learner at FSCJ

What to Remember…

It is important to know who the learners are in our virtual classroom. Often, online students are adult learners who are nontraditional students. They are usually in the workforce, may have family obligations, perhaps they travel for their work, or may even be abroad for a period of time. Usually the adult learners have a specific reason for obtaining their higher education degree – for example, it might be for personal satisfaction, to open career doors in the future, or advance in their present organization.

Adapted from CSU Global “Characteristics of CSU Global Students”

Page 13: The Adult Learner at FSCJ

Some Principles for Adult Learning

Needs Assessment: Participation of the learner in naming what is to be learned.

Safety in the environment between teacher and learner for learning and development.

A sound relationship between teacher and learner for learning and development.

Careful attention to sequence of content and reinforcement.

Praxis: Action with reflection or learning by doing.

Respect for learners as subjects of their own learning.

From: Vella, J. (1994). Learning to Listen, Learning to Teach. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 3-22.

Page 14: The Adult Learner at FSCJ

Androgogy

Knowles’ Principles of Andragogy:

Adults need to be involved in the planning and evaluation of their instruction

Experience (including mistakes) provides the basis for learning activities

Adults are most interested in learning about subjects that have immediate relevance to their job or personal life

Adult learning is problem-centered rather than content-oriented

Page 15: The Adult Learner at FSCJ

More About Adult Learners

They are more self-guided in their learning,

They bring more, and expect to bring more, to a learning situation because of their wider experience - and can take more away, and

They require learning "to make sense" - they will not perform a learning activity just because the instructor said to do it.

Adapted from CSU Global “Characteristics of CSU Global Students”

Page 16: The Adult Learner at FSCJ

Now That We KnowMore About ThemWhat Can We Do to Help Our Students Succeed?

Page 17: The Adult Learner at FSCJ

Best Practices for Our Learners

Consider applying principles of andragogy along with your other practices

Create a more “social classroom”

Through use of blogs, wikis, social networks, synchronous chat sessions

Create a clear agenda

Organize your course shell in a user-centric way

Page 18: The Adult Learner at FSCJ

ConclusionsHow to Begin Implementing These Strategies for Success

Page 19: The Adult Learner at FSCJ

Faculty Role to Ensure Continuous Improvement Attend professional development regularly.

Rely on your support network.

Read current research.

Revise curriculum as needed (with approval of supervising administrator).

Select new approaches as needed.

Mentor other teachers!

Drawn from “Reform versus Traditional Pedagogy” by Cathy Jones

Page 20: The Adult Learner at FSCJ

A Final Thought…

Adults have increased variation in learning styles. The individual differences among people increase with age. Using a variety of teaching materials and methods will assist in catering to the differences in style, time, types, and pace of learning. In addition to text-based focus, Palloff and Pratt (2003) noted, "We need to pay attention to ways to facilitate the other dimensions of learning or we risk losing our students," which is something to consider in learning styles in the module reading this week (p. 35). Once acclimated to the online environment, adult learners are typically self-directed and self-motivated, necessary in online learning.