Nontraditonal students are one of the fastest growing populations of students; however, there is limited information on the expectations of nontraditonal students. In a post-COVID-19 era of education, a deeper understanding of expectations beyond the traditional college experience, provides valuable insights to meet the needs of incoming nontraditional students.
Nontraditonal students are one of the fastest growing populations of college students. Research demonstrates the unique learning preferences, learning styles as well as the challenges and obstacles nontraditonal students face. Universities can design and prepare programs for nontraditional students by understanding the unique needs of the nontraditional student population and by creating learning experiences that match the preferences of nontraditional students. There is a gap in the body of research that does not address the expectations nontraditional students hold when entering an academic program and the expectations they hold for outcomes of the program they have entered.
Understanding the expectations held by nontraditonal students allows for universities to create and design programs and courses that support and engage nontraditional students and assist nontraditional students in reaching their academic and career goals. There is value in conducting research to provide a framework around nontraditional student expectations in order to support the growing population of nontraditional students. Nontraditional students will benefit from the definition of nontraditional student expectations since the data will provide universities with the ability to fine tune their academic programs to meet the needs and desires of the student population. Many nontraditional students must balance family and education. Universities will benefit from a definition of nontraditional student expectations by being able to utilize the information to recruit and retain a nontraditional student population. Marketing techniques such as storytelling can help universities to connect to nontraditional students by sharing student stories that demonstrate an understanding of and connection to nontraditional student expectations for an academic program and program outcomes. As universities prepare for a post-COVID-19 era of higher education, having a deeper understanding of expectations that branch beyond the traditional college experience, will provide valuable insight for adapting programs and courses to meet the needs of incoming nontraditional students.
This presentation is designed to engage higher education professionals in the conversation surrounding nontraditonal students. By providing an overview of the research pertaining to nontraditional students, the presentation will invite atendees to collaborate and share experiences, trends and patterns that have been demonstrated in their universities. The presentation will pose questions to attendees to encourage such a sharing of ideas. A collaboration of ideas surrounding the topic will assist in refining the research on the expectations of nontraditional students in order to address the gap present in research literature.