More than a third of all undergraduate students are 25 or older, and their presence on college and university campuses is growing. However, institutions of higher learning are struggling to meet the needs of, and improve persistence and completion rates for, this significant student population. "Increasing Adult Learner Persistence and…

People learn in many different ways and in many different places. What is learned informally or experientially is often the same or similar to what may be learned in traditional formal learning environments. There are many reasons why recognizing experiential learning is viable educational option, more so in today's economy than ever before. Prior…

Using a framework to review the research, this article evaluates the effectiveness of adjunct questions and objectives in a prose learning setting. The framework proved useful in identifying processes responsible for the effects of the two adjunct aids, in explaining unusual and/or discrepant results, and generating recommendations for future…

Discusses issues in distance education for adults that can affect the welfare of others and suggests ethical sensitivity is needed. Ethical issues addressed include admission and retention of students; course development and presentation; program and course marketing; administrative issues; learner/instructor interaction; and evaluation. (29…

This study was commissioned to investigate whether or not, and if so, how, use of different assessment methods makes a difference to learner achievement and progress in the learning and skills sector (LSS). This is the first comprehensive study of assessment procedures and practices employed across the full range of LSS contexts--school sixth…

Discusses seven basic principles related to instructional design for adult trainees in a business environment. Topics discussed include objectives of instructional design; performance problems; feedback; assessment; analysis; production, using the most suitable medium; evaluation; implementation; incentives; motivation; and job aids. An adult…

Adults learn from many sources, such as volunteer work, community services, homemaking, jobs, and other activities, and they increasingly want this learning to be recognized so that they can reenter the job market, get a promotion, or return to college. Therefore, scientific methods have been developed to help adults document their experiential…

This handbook is intended to serve as a hands-on reference for technical trainers, many of whom are resident experts in corporations who have been recruited from within the organization rather than individuals with training background. It contains 23 chapters by experts in the field: (1) The History of Technical Training (Richard A. Swanson and…

This document is designed to help adult and community learning (ACL) services across the United Kingdom complete the annual self-assessment reports (SARs). The guide begins with background information on the purposes of self-assessment, the new context of ACL and the elements and format of the new SARs. The remaining four sections examine the…

Educational institutions need to help women get a better education by taking into account the learning they have acquired through experience in homemaking, volunteer work, and other activities. This paper examines the need for recognition of women's prior learning by educational institutions and delves into some of the intricacies of the process.…

This document is designed to introduce practitioners in the United Kingdom's learning and skills sector to the principles and practice of benchmarking. The first section defines benchmarking and differentiates metric, diagnostic, and process benchmarking. The remainder of the booklet details the following steps of the benchmarking process: (1) get…

The different views regarding what constitutes learning success and progression in England's post-16 learning sector and the problem of meeting current policy and funding priorities stressing tangible and measurable outcomes while simultaneously responding to learners' needs and preferences were examined in a discussion that drew upon policy…

This publication describes the activities, deliberations, and products of a semester-long, graduate-level class dealing with policy development related to self-directed adult learning. The first section of the document provides a brief overview of the scope and content of the course. After a section of definitions of terms relating to…

This document presents and discusses a self-assessment checklist that the General Accounting Office (GAO) developed to enable agency leaders to examine their human capital efforts through a process consisting of the following stages: analyze and plan; implement change; and evaluate and continuously improve. The preface defines the term "human…

This publication describes the activities, deliberations, and products of a summer, graduate-level workshop in which students met for five consecutive day-long sessions to build on the state of knowledge regarding self-directed learning in terms of needed facilitation and needed learning resources. The first section of the document provides a…