With the transition to online learning faculty and staff are experiencing being a student once again. When adult learners have obtained advanced degrees, do traditional challenges to college level learning apply in professional development situations? Professionals experience similar barriers as youth and adult learners in college. Mixed-method survey results from professional development programs provide identified thematic factors that may create obstacles to success. Discussion will include application of effective strategies.
Barriers to success in learning have common themes even across age populations. For the 21st century learner such challenges to success at institutions of higher education include motivation, expectations, support, and development of strategies and goals (Hansman & Mott, 2010; Knowles, 1984; Kinzie, 2014; Kuh, Kinzie, Buckley, Bridges, & Hayek, 2006; Merriam, Caffarella, & Baumgartner, 1999). Intrinsic and extrinsic dynamics impact the various factors that can prevent youth and adult learners from achieving stated intensions. Influential factors include psychosocial factors, emotional factors, and, more specifically self-efficacy, adjustment, and the ability to navigate and integrate technology (Duggan & Pickering, 2008; Gustavson & Nall, 2001; Koenig & Gramlick, 2004; Vuong, Brown-Welty, & Tracz, 2010).
From the literature, it is well known that adult learners have similar barriers to success in college and university (Anderson, 2003; Ferrari, Johnson, & McCown, 1995; Knowles, Holton, & Swanson, 1998; Merriam & Caffarella, 1999; Thomas & Gadbois, 2007). However, when adult learners have obtained advanced degrees and are professionals themselves the question is whether such challenges apply in professional development situations. In particular, and especially with the move to online teaching and learning at many institutions (Allen & Seaman, 2013; 2014; Greer, 2010), droves of faculty and staff are experiencing being a student once again yet in what for several is a new format of learning.
Professionals chose to or are required by their department or institution to attend professional development webinars, workshops, and certificate programs to become introduced to and/or proficient in online course design and the delivery of instruction in an elearning environment. It may be surprising that professionals, including those who are deemed effective and excellent in their teaching and service to students, experience the same barriers that youth and adult learners in college and university courses experience. From a series of mixed-method survey results from professional development workshops and online teaching certificate programs offered through the non-profit organization The Online Learning Consortium (OLC), themes such as motivation, support, expectations, setting of goals, intent to develop strategies, attitudes, and self-efficacy are all present. Such factors can become obstacles for adaptation to the new environment, integration of the learning, and overall success in the intended objectives.
The non-profit educational organization, the Online Learning Consortium (OLC) educates and trains participants from around the world in various proven and effective research based strategies, for blended and fully online teaching and learning (OLC, 2015). Professionals with varying levels of experience in education and online learning attend training, workshops, and courses remotely through synchronous and asynchronous methods similar to the experiences of their students. And, similar to their students, participants will find difficulty navigating the technology and classroom, will experience issues with the balance between work, family, and school obligations, will arrive at sessions unprepared, will have self-doubt, and will come to the sessions with unclear expectations and/or goals.
Application of effective strategies that can mirror those applied to first-year students, applied to adult learners in higher education, applied to at-risk students, and applied to new elearners can potentially mitigate disengagement, disconnect, and failure. A combination of proactive and responsive strategies blending youth, adult, and elearning theories (i.e. the Community of Inquiry) may promote deeper learning, support cognitive and non-cognitive factors, and break down barriers holding back professional and personal success. Within the presentation the authors will provide referral to relevant literature, discuss mixed-method data results, and describe examples of effective strategies for adult learners in professional development elearning environments for application to create further achievement and attainment by those who teach and serve our students.