English language (EL) learners, many of whom are immigrants, face economic, social, and cultural constraints when accessing Extension programming. NFNM is an innovative program that seeks to address these constraints by developing and implementing place-based natural history curriculum for adult English language (EL) learners in the authors state.…

The CAEL (Council for Adult and Experiential Learning) and the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE) announce the inaugural winners of the Credit for Prior Learning (CPL) Equity Awards, recognizing strategies that have been proven to put CPL in reach of key adult learner populations and/or increase their CPL credit-earning.…

At a time when the number of younger students entering our colleges and universities is stagnant, and the number of older people in our society continues to grow by the millions, schools of social work have an opportunity to broaden their student base by intentionally including people past midlife. This article argues that we must recruit and…

The Latino and Adult Student Success (LASS) Academy is a multi-year initiative administered by CAEL (the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning) focused on supporting Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) in their efforts to improve outcomes for adult and Latino adult learners. In its first phase, from 2018 through 2021, the LASS Academy…

Although traditional student enrollment is declining, the nontraditional segment of students is growing. This enrollment pattern will require recruitment strategies that speak directly to the adult learners. There is robust adoption of social media use by individuals and by organizations for marketing purposes. Social media marketing includes…

Supporting adult learners as they complete their postsecondary certificates and degrees is essential to meeting the state's educational attainment goals and the employment needs of students and Washington employers. Students come to college with skills and knowledge acquired through work, military, and other experiences. Awarding academic credit…

As the price of a public college education has risen at well above the rate of inflation for decades, college affordability has become a key concern in public policy discussions. At the same time, recent high school graduates from lower-income and middle-income families are nearly 20 percentage points less likely to enroll in college the following…

Eastern Mennonite University's adult program uses a hybrid governance structure. Functions separated from the traditional program include marketing, admissions, and student advising. Functions that remain connected to the traditional program include the registrar, financial aid, and student business accounts.

More than ever, people are seeking substance use disorder treatment during the adolescent and young adult stages of development. Developmentally, many of these young adults new to recovery are in the process of making career decisions that may require attendance at a college or university. However, the collegiate environment is not conducive to a…

This article examines the characteristics of self-directed learning as they apply to the Award in Mentoring (AIM), a school-based professional development program with teachers as adult learners. A short introduction to self-directed learning is presented followed by a look at the design of AIM and how AIM addresses some self-directed learning…

The purpose of this paper is to describe the development and implementation phases of online graduate nuclear engineering courses that are part of the Graduate Nuclear Engineering Certificate program at Virginia Tech. Virginia Tech restarted its nuclear engineering program in the Fall of 2007 with 60 students, and by 2009, the enrollment had grown…

Adult professionals are continuing their learning over the lifespan entering graduate school in their thirties, forties, fifties, and, even sixties. Knowledge is the new economic currency today and the increasing rate at which new knowledge is generated in the global world requires continuous learning. The author describes Fielding Graduate…

In 2009, "Community College Week" named Northeast Alabama Community College (NACC) one of the fastest growing community colleges in America. In the early 2000s, the college, which is located in the rural Appalachian region of Alabama, had begun efforts to increase enrollment. These efforts included providing online registration, online…

How do open and distance learning institutions review and renew themselves to ensure their continued fitness for purpose? Here we report on the work of a change team in the UK Open University, a Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning created to examine, innovate and improve student support. The existence of the Centre for five years from…

This article describes the creation of an intercultural welcoming panel that the authors developed with English as a second language (ESL) students and communication studies (CS) students at a community college. The creation of the welcoming panel is based on their collaborative work with both sets of students over several academic quarters. The…