Adult Learners’ Study Trends

As unemployment rises, along with employer concerns about worker skills, adult learners are returning to higher education in droves. As per the Center for National Education Statistics, students enrolling in two-year colleges offering workforce development skills are the fastest growing higher education population, and growth of enrollment in higher education for people over 25 is expected to outpace that of younger students through 2016.With these adult students come new challenges for institutional study programs and personnel. Given their already limited resources, how can traditional universities support these students and their specialized needs?Many adult students take distance courses. Because online learning often lacks direct contact with faculty and staff on campus, supporting these students can be challenging. In-house systems provide a controlled environment — at the very least we know what systems are in place and can engage students directly. In the world of the online adult learner, this is rarely the case.The shift to online learning impacts students, instructors, and the information professionals who support them. Even today, many instructors have difficulty developing and managing online courses. Adult students often have little experience working online and need help navigating content and performing learning tasks. Some instructors are online innovators, and some adult students are Internet savvy. This can be a blessing and curse for technologists. Courses using wikis, blogs, and Google Docs provide adult students the opportunity to learn in real-life contexts using a variety of work-related tools and skills. But the experience can come at the cost of lost structure and control.