How do we engage the nontraditional student who has limited and inflexible time but has greater success with live instruction? In this presentation, we will speak to the challenge of teaching nontraditional learners and discuss how educational technology, with strategic support, could address the issues of learning, engagement, and retention.
How do we engage the nontraditional student who has limited and inflexible time but has better success with live instruction? In a time where nontraditional students are becoming the new normal in higher education, with almost 50% of undergraduates in that category, their success is not only determined by enrollments but by their rates of retention amidst a competing set of life priorities. At SUNY Empire State College, where the majority of our students are nontraditional learners, the two most flexible and popular modes of studies are online courses and independent studies (in the independent study modality, students learn independently with the guidance of a faculty mentor). Yet, it was found that, in the last five years, they had significantly lower course completion rates vs. modalities that had live course instruction. In addition, given that SUNY Empire State College has 35 locations throughout New York State, creating a community of learners, where students feel connected to the instructor and fellow students who each are located at a different site, is an added institutional challenge.
Therefore, we sought to address this challenge of learning, engagement, and retention particularly in the independent study modality by creating a hybrid synchronous-independent format. This was our shared mission, and we each came to it with a specific purpose and a set of goals. Accounting Professor, Diane Perilli's interest was in finding a way to connect her independent study students to each other and to provide direct, live course instruction as a group to enhance learning and engagement even when her students were located throughout New York State. Lead Educational Technologist, Mrs. Carolina Kim de Salamanca's goals were to pinpoint the kind of support necessary to improve the adult learner’s experience, to ensure student success in utilizing the embedded technology and, most importantly, to create a scalable model that could be implemented in other disciplines, thus benefitting the greater college community.
In our Educate and Reflect session, attendees will be presented with information about the qualities and challenges of teaching the nontraditional student. We will share our planning process, what was implemented, and how it aligns with the theories and frameworks of Malcom Knowles, Jack Mezirow, and Stephen Brookfield (among others). We will also describe the outcomes and how it was received by the students through the surveys completed since Fall 2017. During the reflection and the group Q&A time, the audience will be given the opportunity to participate in some of Brookfield’s strategies for using discussion as a way of teaching and reaching nontraditional, or adult, learners such as the Newsprint Dialogue and Circle of Voices methods. This session will be of interest to administrators, faculty, and educational technology professionals who wish to support their nontraditional students, or adult learners, through collaborative partnerships and strategic support.