At Junction, we’ve always taken the needs of adult learners into consideration from the early days of our MVP through our most recently announced set of feature updates for the Fall term. Who are adult learners? They are often older than 25, with jobs, potentially children at home and highly motivated to improve their lot in life. They work. Hard. So we’ve been careful to design features and functions which minimize distractions and keep them focused – engaged and efficient – to maximize the use of whatever study time they can carve out of their busy lives.
More than 40 percent of Americans enrolled in colleges are adult learners. Nevertheless, they’re often considered “nontraditional” students, with many colleges and universities just starting to consider their diverse needs, and how they differ from the 18-21 year-old crowd.
This large, diverse, group has generally been serviced by similarly “non traditional” institutions – for-profits and fully online schools – which offer them these students the flexibility they need to pursue degrees. These students need flexible schedules, peer support, the ability to easily transfer credits previously earned and the possibility of credit for on-the-job knowledge. Ironically, they often have the job ready skills that employers find deficient in a younger audience because these older students have been in the workforce for many years already. They are also very focused on mastering skills, and obtaining a degree, in an area that helps them get ahead.
“We’re very proud of our liberal arts core, but the adult learner isn’t wanting or ready to come back and study philosophy or English or history,” Doug Fiore, the provost and vice president for academic affairs at Park University, tells the Monitor in a phone interview. “They really want to get into a curriculum that helps them secure a job.”
If you’re at an institution considering course redesign efforts in blended / fully online learning and are looking for ways to grow enrollments, drop us a line to see how we can help make your programs more attractive to the large, and growing, segment of adult learners.
