E-NEWSLETTER

Higher Ed Dialog

The New Landscape of Adult Education

Higher education has changed drastically in 20 years.  Carol Aslanian, the founder of the Aslanian Group and current Senior Vice President of EducationDynamics’ Market Research and Advisory Services, recently conducted a study to determine just how different the new landscape is from what it once was. Some of her findings include: 

  1. Nearly two-thirds of adult students take classes that can be completed in 10 weeks or less (20 years ago, the majority took courses lasting 14 weeks or longer).
  2. The majority of adult students report a preference for taking a future course online (either a hybrid course that is delivered partly online and partly in the classroom or a course delivered entirely online).
  3. A college’s website is the single most important tool for attracting adult students. An increasing number of adult students bypass the traditional recruiting cycle and move straight from a search engine to a college’s website to completing an application, without any prior direct contact with the college.


For more insight into the current crop of adult students, download EducationDynamics’ latest white paper, Hindsight, Insight, Foresight: Understanding Adult Learning Trends to Predict Future Opportunities.

 

Only published comments... Aug 24 2009, 12:00 PM by Matthew Ulmer

Comments

 

Judith Richardson said:

There continues to be resistance to moving the lion share of courses for working adults to the online format. I must admit, I am one who resists.  My assessment of the learning styles of working adults(who incidently must work full time to be able to afford to go back to school) has revealed that most of them prefer face to face learning and learn better via the discussion and project oriented  hands on collaboration strategies.  Where is the research that shows students who earn degrees online have mastered good communication skills? I have interviewed perspective instructors who are graduates with online MBA's who cannot present and use really poor grammar.  While I understand  enrollment( make that money) is the bottom line in keeping colleges and universities afloat, where do standards and skills fit into the picture?  .

Does anyone else see this as a problem?

Judy Richardson, Adjunct Instructor, College for Working Adults, William Penn University, Oksaloosa, Iowa

September 4, 2009 2:25 PM

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