Knowing what we know about adult learning principles, how can we identify what educators should provide in the classroom in order to facilitate adult learning? We categorized adult learners’ needs, summarized what that might look like in respect to course design, and provided discussion on how this course models that format.
The structure of your course should follow an organized, logical design. Adults engage in self-directed learning and may actively search through the course material to familiarize themselves with where different elements are located and how to accomplish given tasks. However, providing them with guidance, models, and examples helps streamline this process as they navigate the course.
The course should be divided into chunks of relevant content information presented over time. This can take shape in the form of modules, units, or lessons that maintain the same format throughout the course. For example, this course is divided into 3 modules based on content. All the modules in this class contain Lecture Content, Readings, Assignments, and Supplemental Tools and Resources sections. As learners in the course, you know where to go to locate needed materials and information about your assignments.
Establishing consistency throughout the course provides learners with a sense of predictability and relieves anxiety or concerns about the structure of the course so they can better focus their efforts on making meaning from its content. Remember – adults want learning to be purposeful and they are goal-oriented. If they spend valuable time trying to make sense of the course structure, this distracts from the learning process and frustrates them. The course syllabus, a course assignment outline, and a course calendar or other visual depiction of expected milestones and assignment due dates contribute to developing the structure of the course (Blondy, 2007). In addition, modules in a course should always build on one another throughout the progression of the class. In other words, the information presented in Module 1 should establish the framework for the information presented in Module 2, and so on.
Finally, much like the basic organization of an essay, your courses should include an introduction and a conclusion. The introduction helps familiarize the students with the course and get them acclimated to the environment. The conclusion allows you to resolve any outstanding questions, address material that may not have fit within other modules, and close the course so there is no remaining ambiguity.
Your courses need to clearly define their purpose and the expectations of the students. As a key element of andragogy, the learner’s need to know impacts how the new information becomes embedded into their meaning-making systems. If the material presented to adult learners is not purposeful and instrumental in problem-solving, it loses its value and does not become integrated into their way of understanding. You can best accomplish such clarity by developing course objectives, or learning outcomes, that you can use as a basis for your course activities. In other words, all content and activities should align with the course objectives.
Course objectives should indicate a skill or an action that the students can master either during the course or by the completion of the course. They should be student-centered rather than instructor-centered, and they should provide learners with a clear understanding of how they can make decisions and formulate their own pathways toward accomplishing those objectives (Mager, 1997). Course objectives should also be measurable, concise, and specific.
Once again, the syllabus, a course assignment outline, and a course calendar are vital to helping learners know what they will be doing throughout the course, parameters of assignments and deliverables, and deadlines for task completion. One step further in the development of course objectives is the presentation of them. Reminding the learners in your course how each of the activities they complete are connected with one of the learning objectives helps the learners better understand the purpose behind the activity and how it will help them meet their goals.
In this course, the objectives relate directly to the overall purpose of the course and each activity was developed from one of the objectives. In addition, the objectives of each individual module are presented at the beginning of the module to identify what you can expect to accomplish by the end of each module.
As self-directed learners, adults will intentionally pursue the information they need through their own motivations to learn. This principle of adult learning can provide educators with flexibility when designing course assignments. For example, adult learners can be tasked with identifying a particular topic of interest to them and then further researching that topic on their own, rather than relying on the educator to assign topics that may or may not interest the learners.
Despite being internally motivated to learn, adult learners still need and value learning opportunities that are accessible. Therefore, restricting availability of course information based on a timeline or failing to provide learners with all information about the course and its content at its commencement can impede their understanding of the course’s purpose, as well as how they orient themselves to the course and approach the material.
Moreover, a lack of accessibility to the course content impacts the adult learner’s engagement in the course by minimizing their sense of being responsible for their own learning and involved in the decision-making processes. One example is to ensure that any resources the students are required to review, such as articles or texts that are separate from the course textbook, are available through the library or internet resources and the students are given direct links. Adult learners may need to access course information from various locations and complete assignments when they are not busy with other responsibilities.
Furthermore, accessibility can also refer to the adult learners’ abilities to relate the given material. To maintain the relevance of the course, relating the material to current, realistic examples whenever possible benefits adult learners’ abilities to build connections in their understanding.
In this online course, all of the course content is presented in the modules and all modules are open and available to you. This course design allows you to see how the modules are fluid and connected. Accessibility to all course content gives you a holistic vision of the course, demonstrates how the content between the modules is relevant, and reveals how to scaffold learning and build upon prior knowledge.
Time is incredibly valuable for adult learners because they are often balancing a range of different responsibilities at once. Yet again, we must emphasize the importance of making courses and the activities within them purposeful and relevant for adult learners. Adult learners do not want “busy work.” By aligning the course assignments with course objectives, you can eliminate work that may be viewed by adult learners as a waste of time, that does not contribute to their overall understanding of the material they are studying, or that is not applicable to their lives and work.
Adult learners want to be stakeholders in the decision-making processes of their education. Courses that do not take into consideration adults’ busy lives and the ways in which asynchronous learning can work favorably for adult learners do not reflect the self-concept principle of adult learning. Courses developed with adult learners in mind allow the learners to participate in a self-paced approach to their completion of course (Bourdeaux & Schoenack, 2016). Timelines and deadlines should not be dismissed entirely when designing adult learner courses; instead, deliberate assignment planning that is built around adults’ work and life schedules, and that allows flexibility of assignment completion is a more successful approach for adult learners. Additionally, educators should consider the course workload and set realistic expectations when estimating the amount of time learners will need to dedicate to tasks.
Rice University provides a Course Workload Estimator as a tool for calculating the amount of time students will spend on coursework. Click this link to the website to view the tool.
Along with making conscious decisions based on the amount of time adult learners are capable of dedicating to coursework, a key element of facilitating adult learning is the provision of time for reflection. Adults use their past experiences and prior knowledge to bridge the gaps between what they already know and new information presented to them. To make meaning from these connections, adult learners must engage in reflective practices. Consequently, educators must build time and space for reflection into their courses. Reflective practices are often interconnected with dialogue; therefore, they emerge through discussion forums or collaborative work. However, reflection is also an individual exercise that can transpire through reflective writing, directed readings, or presentations, and evaluations for example.
In this course, time ranked particularly important for all participants. Therefore, the modules were designed with a capped time commitment of no more than two hours per week. While deadlines were imposed on the course assignments, they factor in the need for flexibility in the amount of time spent on the activities and timeframes during which learners can submit their assignments. For example, the submission portals remain open until midnight of the assignment deadline. Finally, this course emphasizes reflection in almost every task. In an effort to make the course material relevant and applicable, we ask you to reflect on not only what you already know, but also what you are learning along the way and what you will be able to do with that knowledge.
As with reflection, adult learners rely heavily upon communication and dialogue to make meaning. Discussion provides adult learners with a platform to share past experiences with others. Through the sharing process, adults can simultaneously engage in reflection and action, or what Freire (1970) called "praxis." The dialogue that develops and the exchange of ideas and perspectives provides adults with exposure to new information, a way to analyze what they already know, and a space to question why they developed certain perspectives as opposed to others.
Discussion is also a valuable context to accommodate adult learners’ orientation to learning. Since adult learners are goal-oriented and problem-centered, engaging them in collaborative activities where they can share ideas with other adults supports this process. As they work on collaborative assignments, adults can interact with people who may maintain different perspectives on not only the task, but also a method for completing the task and accomplishing the goal. Discussion forums, for example, should be engaging, purposeful, and function as "holding environments" (Kegan, 1982) where adults can feel safe to express themselves without judgment. Although adult learners are self-directed and internally motivated, this does not suggest that the bulk of their learning occurs in isolation. Adults want to be involved in the decision-making processes that impact their education. They learn through the interactions they experience as they work toward their educational goals and co-construct their learning environments.
In this course, you will participate in discussion forums and engage in collaborative inquiry through small group work. The discussion forums designed for this course provide you with the ability to select a topic that appeals to you and integrate your reflection on the topic with your discussions. Furthermore, the group work facilitates dialogue with your classmates, the sharing of perspectives, and the opportunity to engage in collegial inquiry about how you can apply your knowledge of adult learning theory to not only your teaching strategies, but also your partner’s.
As previously mentioned, the assumption that adults are self-directed learners is not an indication that they do not appreciate guidelines or structure. In fact, this is evidenced through yet another adult learning principle – their need for purposeful learning. Detailed guidelines that frame each activity and assignment in the course are vital for facilitating adult learning.
Additionally, and perhaps even more importantly, guidance comes in the form of feedback and constructive criticism. A common concept explored in adult development is the idea that adults will react in certain ways when confronted with situations that make them question their ways of knowing, such as disorienting dilemmas (Mezirow, 2000) or adaptive challenges (Kegan, 1982). They can reexamine their perspectives and experience transformation and growth, altering their meaning structures as a result. Or, adult learners can return to behavior and ways of thinking that are comfortable, without challenging their existing perspectives. This can be applied to adults’ interactions with critique and feedback in a course. Therefore, it is important for educators to use their feedback in courses as a way to facilitate an adequate balance of supports and challenges. Validating adult learners’ experiences, creating a range of low and high stakes assessments of knowledge, and providing timely and constructive feedback will not only give adult learners clarity about what is expected of them from you and your course, but will also contribute to their development.
This course, while brief, aims to contribute to your development by providing you with new perspectives about adult learning. It is our hope that by scaffolding your learning about adult learning principles throughout the module, you can identify a gap in your online teaching strategies where adult learning theory can be applied. Finally, through peer feedback and highlighting areas for further reflection in our feedback on course assignments, we hope to provide you with the space, supports, and challenges necessary for you to build your capacity for change.
Along with integrating adult learning principles into your teaching strategies, it is equally important to consider how you can embrace diversity and inclusion through your course design and through your interactions with students.
When designing your courses, ask yourself the following questions:
Here are some examples for addressing diversity and inclusion in course design:
When interacting with your students, ask yourself the following questions:
Here are some examples for addressing diversity and inclusion when interacting with students: