INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this paper is to present an analysis of the theme of adult learners in distance and online learning. Definitions of adult learners sometimes vary, but a working definition is students who are age 22 or older, or who are enrolled on a less than full-time basis. (Ke & Xie, 2009) It is important to understand adult learners because as Park & Choi (2009) say, “most distance education students are adults between the ages of 25 and 50 ... programs for adult learners delivered online in corporate settings as well as in higher education [have] steadily increased over the last few years.” (p. 207) The increasing prominence of adult students in this medium emphasizes the importance to all educational stakeholders of understanding these learners.
Organization of the paper
This paper begins with a methods section, describing both the methods of this analysis and of the studies discussed. The findings section details and synthesizes the results of the studies. The next section is the discussion, which is an assessment and evaluation of the research findings. Lastly, the conclusions, limitations, and implications section will look beyond the studies discussed here to the broader picture.
METHODS
The 15 sources were selected from 12 peer-reviewed educational technology journals. Because all sources were selected from educational technology journals, all focused on adult learners in electronic media. The analysis only included sources with the words “adult” and either “online” or “distance” as part of the title. All studies included in this analysis had participants; no meta-analyses, book reviews, or thought pieces were included. The literature was searched electronically for studies meeting the title and content criteria; the 15 studies best fitting the research theme were then selected. No more than two studies were drawn from each journal, in order to give a broad range to the analysis and avoid the bias that might potentially be introduced by over-reliance on any one source.
The studies were published between 2002 and 2013, with the majority of studies being from 2011 or later. All the studies included participant data, though they varied in their approaches. Nine out of the fifteen studies used surveys and other instruments to gather quantitative data. Three studies relied on the qualitative analysis of participant interviews. Two studies used a mixed method of both surveys and interviews. The final study in this analysis used an experimental quantitative model. Of the studies that used surveys, the sample size varied widely from as few as 15 to as many as 2442. The studies were conducted in various settings around the world including the US, UK, Malaysia, and Taiwan. For complete delineation of the studies' characteristics, see Table 1 below.
The purpose of this analysis was to examine commonalities and differences among the studies, using a qualitative metasynthesis approach. Qualitative metasynthesis is a technique and method for synthesizing ideas from a survey of literature around one topic. (Thorne, Jensen, Kearney, Noblit, & Sandelowski, 2004) This technique was used to draw out themes in this analysis, treating the studies as qualitative data that was analyzed by identifying common themes and ideas, and evaluating them in their full context. (Thorne et al., 2004) Each study was read closely and summarized for sub-themes in relation to the overall theme of adult learners in online and distance learning. By performing and analysis of multiple studies, individual weaknesses in the studies are ameliorated, and the results of each study are checked for validity by comparing their findings with that of the overall research landscape. Four sub-themes were isolated, which were reported on in the findings section below. Each theme was explained and supported with evidence, and then conclusions were drawn.
FINDINGS
Four sub-themes relating to adult learners in online and distance learning emerged in this analysis: work demands challenge adult learners; adult learners are self-directed; adult learners need social presence and communication; and adults show diverse learning strategies.
Work demands challenge adult learners
Adult students often face competing demands on their time beyond those that traditional students would, including full-time jobs. These learners often choose online courses specifically because they allow the flexibility to fit their studies into a busy schedule. (Park & Choi, 2009) The time restraints on adult learners make them more vulnerable to stressors and more likely to drop out. (Dumais, Rizzuto, Cleary, & Dowden, 2013; Park & Choi, 2009, p. 208)
There is not a simple relationship in which full-time employment makes students more likely to fail, however. The research reviewed in this analysis shows a more complicated picture. In one large study, adult online students with full-time jobs were shown to perform better academically than those who worked part-time or not at all. (Delialioglu, Cakir, Bichelmeyer, Dennis, & Duffy, 2010) Those learners in this study who worked full time scored 4.5% higher on their final examination than those who did not; a statistically significant result.
Further evidence of the complexity of adults' work-school dynamic comes from those studies that looked at specific work-related factors and how they affect performance. In a study that compared first-generation and continuing-generation learners, the students' demands from their work-place varied widely. First-generation students were much more likely to report that they had demanding work environments that would not allow them to prioritize school work. Although both sets of students were working full-time at almost exactly the same rate, the first-generation group reported significantly more work-related issues. (Dumais et al., 2013) A different study looking at factors that determined the persistence of adult online learners in their courses found that a major determinate of the likelihood of course completion was having a work environment that allowed sufficient time and resources for school work (Park & Choi, 2009). The authors of the study concluded “adult learners should be granted released time from their jobs and given encouragement from peers and/or supervisors to participate in the course.” (Park & Choi, 2009, p. 216) Both of these studies show the importance of work conditions on adult students.
Adult learners are self-directed
Higher education students' motivations can be understood in two categories: internal (self-directed) and external (other directed). (Henry 2011) Adult students are more internally motivated and self-directed than traditional students.
Researchers demonstrated several different ways to conceptualize and measure self-direction and internal motivation in adults. A study of adult learners in Taiwan used an instrument called a Self-Directed Learning Readiness (SDLR) score, and found that age correlated positively with learners' SDLR scores. (Lai, 2011) The participants were divided into four age categories: 30 and younger; 31-40; 41-50; and 51 and older. Each successive age group had a statistically significantly higher SDLR score than the last. Older students were more self-directed, and being self-directed was important to online learning success. (Lai, 2011)
When researchers surveyed adult students and asked them what factors are most important to them in completing their coursework, the students rated internal factors significantly higher than external factors. A small study of adult doctoral students found that internally motivating factors (personal goals, sense of enjoyment, knowledge acquisition) were ranked higher than external factors (career benefits, instructor responses). (Henry, 2011) When researchers used an achievement-goal measure to determine whether students sought to achieve mastery goals (internal) or performance goals (external), they found that older students were significantly more likely to prefer mastery goals than younger students (in a different but analogous study). (Remedios & Richardson, 2013)
Adult learners enjoy learning more than younger learners do. The SDLR study mentioned above found higher scores on a love of learning measure for older adults than for younger ones. (Lai, 2011) When adult students ranked the factors that motivated them, they ranked “personal enjoyment” higher than all but one external factor. (Henry, 2011) One study of adult learners in prison found that adult students valued learning highly, considered it a lifeline and a cornerstone of their identity. (Pike & Adams, 2012) Even in an environment where external motivators were nearly impossible, such as incarceration, this study found through interviews that these adult inmates vigorously pursued learning and valued their opportunities for online education in the face of opposition and indifference from prison authorities.
Despite the considerable evidence for internal motivations and self-direction among adult learners, external factors are not absent in adult learners. Studies of persistence and educational attainment show that adult learners' perceptions of the relevance of their studies is important. (Park & Choi, 2009; Delialioglu et al., 2010) That is, when adults felt that what they were learning was useful and pertained to their work and personal goals, they were more motivated to stay in the course and do well in it. The mastery vs. performance goals study mentioned above did show that mastery goals were more important to older learners than to younger, but that performance (extearnal) goals were still present in older learners. (Remedios & Richardson, 2013) This indicated that older learners did have value for external affirmation and assessment.
External perception of one's educational accomplishments is important to adult learners in the workplace, as well. A study on how adult learners portrayed their online bachelor's degrees demonstrated that almost half of adults felt self-conscious about having a degree earned online rather than in person, and feared it would detract from the prestige of their education. (Hagan, 2013) This study did not tell us whether online degrees were actually considered less prestigious for adult learners by employers, but it did show that adult learners were not indifferent to external, career-related motivations.
Adult learners need social presence and communication
Social presence and communication comprehend both interaction with instructors and with peers in an online course. (Ke & Xie, 2009) Adult students are more self-directed in online learning, but they are not indifferent to community, social presence, and interaction. They are pursuing their educational goals for primarily internal reasons, but they still want to do so while feeling a connection to others. Ke & Xie (2009) noted that “high-quality online learning for adults is characterized by...social interaction and collaboration.” (p. 137)
Students reported higher satisfaction and more positive emotions when they interacted more with the instructor and received more instructor feedback. A case study of adult learners engaged in open distance learning showed that adults felt a strong need for their instructors to be present and supportive. (Dzakiria, 2012) These students expressed frustration when they perceived their instructors as distant and unsupportive, leading to dissatisfaction and disengagement. A mixed-methods study revealed that teaching presence, both cognitive and social, was vital to the creation of a sense of community in that instructor's course. (Ke, 2010) Although adult learning may be largely self-directed, both of these studies demonstrated that adult students “have identified instructors who demonstrated high presence online as the key to learning satisfaction.” (Ke, 2010, p. 818) The Ke (2010) study looked explicitly for a correlation between the age of the participants and their need for instructor presence and found none. Adult students of all ages preferred strong instructor presence.
Not only do adult learners value interaction received from the instructor, but they also value interacting with peers and forming learning communities. In one survey, 94% of adult students reported feeling the need to communicate with their peers in their online course, and 80% considered social presence in their course as tied to positive emotions about their learning experience. (Angelaki & Mavroidis, 2013) This was found to hold true regardless of age, demonstrating again that older students do not have less need for engagement and interaction than traditional learners. One experimental study found that when divided into groups of in-person students, younger online students (age 20-22), and older online students (above age 35), and given the same course project, the older group initiated significantly more student to student communication. (Harsh & Sohail, 2002) The older group here reached out to their peers not just within their group, but in other groups as well. This level of interaction was not found to correlate with higher levels of performance on the assigned work, but was associated with a greater degree of confidence in their learning abilities.
Although the need for online interaction and community is well-established by this research, it's important to note that this does not mean that higher levels of interaction were associated with better academic outcomes. Indeed, online discussions, though valued by students, have been found to be dominated by shallow, surface-level learning (Ke, 2010), even when the adult learners reported that deep learning was occurring (Ke & Xie, 2009). A strong learning community online may increase adult learning satisfaction, but it's not clear that it has benefits in academic outcomes.
Adults show diverse learning strategies
Difference of learning approaches can have a significant impact on student learning attainment. A study of learning styles among adult students found that a read/write learning style (as opposed to a visual, aural, or kinesthetic style) correlated significantly with higher student performance on course quizzes. (Rakap, 2010) A uniform, inflexible instructional design left behind the students whose learning approach wasn't suited to the traditional text-heavy online learning environment.
Another method used for differentiating learners by learning style was the Assessing the Learning Strategies of Adults (ATLAS) instrument. Adult learners were split into three categories according to their approach to education: Navigators, Problem Solvers, and Engagers. Each category had different needs and conceptualized learning differently. A study applying this instrument to a group of adult learners found that different strategies lead to different outcomes, with each group ranking the importance of various course features significantly differently. (Ausburn, 2004) Adult students' varying needs require flexibility in order to maximize their educational potential.
DISCUSSION
The evidence presented in this analysis supports the idea that adult, non-traditional learners can be successful in online and distance learning, with the proper support. Ke & Xie (2009) succinctly stated that “age itself will not predict online learning outcomes.” (p. 143)
Only one study (Harsh & Sohail, 2002) found that adult learners—in that case, an age group of 35 and over—performed worse on academic outcomes than traditional learners. This study had an extremely small sample size, with a total of only 15 participants, five of whom were adult learners, and cannot be considered representative of the academic performance of adult students. No statistical analysis was performed on the data, they were merely presented as observations. A much larger and more rigorous study (Delialioglu et al., 2010), was performed with 2442 participants completing surveys that were analyzed using a Hierarchical Linear Modeling technique. This study yielded the result that older adults—by their measure, those age 36 and over—performed the best on learning outcomes out of any age group.
Several studies (Ke, 2010; Lai, 2011; Dumais et al., 2013) found that older students were just as confident as younger students when entering online programs. The researchers in these studies investigated whether adult learners wouldn't be technologically prepared for an online program. However, the results demonstrated that technological skill was no barrier to non-traditional learners' success.
In terms of learning communities and interaction in the online environment, the research showed that adult learners have very similar needs to traditional online learners. Two studies (Angelaki & Mavroidis, 2013; Ke & Xie, 2009) explicitly compared the age of adult learners to their need for interaction and found that there was no correlation. Both studies found that online adult learners reported higher satisfaction when they had sufficient presence from their instructors and peers, regardless of age.
The most well-established difference between adult learners and traditional students is that adult learners are more self-directed and internally motivated. This was established through a variety of methods. One research study (Henry, 2011) asked a small number of students to rank motivational factors as important to them. Two studies (Lai, 2011; Remedios & Richardson, 2013) used well-defined theoretical frameworks with validated instruments to determine where learners fell on a scale of motivation. All of these studies concluded that adult learners were demonstrably more motivated by internal factors than younger students were. The one qualitative, interview-based study to address questions of internal vs. external motivations (Pike & Adams, 2012) supported the conclusions drawn by the quantitative research by providing a rich picture of the internal emotional motivations of adult learners. Adults had higher scores in self-direction, were more likely to be motivated by mastery goals and love of learning, and often saw education as an integral part of their identity. However, two studies (Remedios & Richardson, 2013; Hagan 2013) demonstrated that external factors such as recognition and prestige were not absent in adult learners, merely not as prominent as in traditional students.
The research on learning approaches was somewhat scanty. Ausburn (2004) relied on an instrument (ATLAS) which was, by the author's admission “currently under intensive research” (p. 4) and had not been proved to be a valid measure. This cannot be taken as definitive evidence on learning approaches. This leaves one study in this analysis that deals with learning approaches: Rakap (2010). Despite the fact that it had a fairly limited sample size of 46 participants, the author did perform a thorough statistical analysis and found a large and statistically significant effect size between learning groups, along with thorough evidence of the history and validity of the framework and instrument being used. This result is valid and should be taken as a real concern.
Those studies which looked at work demands on adult learners found evidence that contradicted, to some degree, the established wisdom on the subject. Delialioglu et al. (2010) noted that “research suggests that students with full-time jobs academically achieve less than students with a part-time job or no job” (p. 98) One study (Park & Choi, 2009) looked at the likelihood of completion of the course, one (Delialioglu et al., 2010) looked at learning outcomes, and one (Dumais et al., 2013) asked about student-reported difficulties. None of them found that full-time work, as such, was a hinderance to adult learners. All three studies mentioned here stated in their introduction and/or literature review that work has been considered a hinderance to adult learners in past studies about non-traditional students. Two studies (Park & Choi, 2009 and Delialioglu et al., 2010) raised the idea that relevance to work may be an important factor in adult learners' success. They suggested that when the learning that adult students take on is seen as relevant to their work and career goals, this may serve as an important motivating factor to the students. Adult students who work full time can do just as well, if not better, than part-time or non-working students. But this can only happen if employment conditions are conductive to learning.
CONCLUSIONS, LIMITATIONS, AND IMPLICATIONS
Adult online learners are an important and under-investigated part of the higher education populace. They often face challenges in the form of work and family burdens, lack of communication, and rigid coursework requirements that don't accommodate their needs. Despite these issues, adult learners have many advantages. They are more self-directed and independent, they have just as strong a desire for online communication as any other student, and they feel strongly about the importance of their studies. Despite the job demands that many adult learners have, evidence suggests that they are capable of balancing work and school together as long as they have the support to do so. Adult learners do not want to pursue their work in isolation, but want feedback and engagement.
There are several ways in which this analysis is limited in structure and in the research available. Several of the studies are limited by the number of participants and/or by the approach taken by the researchers. Although two of the quantitative studies (Remedios & Richardson, 2013 & Delialioglu et al., 2010) had participant numbers of over a thousand students, others has severely limited numbers, such as Henry (2011) which had merely 15. The conclusions of the smaller studies, especially in those without rigorous statistical analysis, have to be considered tentative at best. Another limitation is the loose and conflicting definitions of “adult learners” that pervaded the research available. No researchers agree completely what age or circumstances make a person an “adult” for this purpose. A few of these studies offer direct comparison of older learners with younger ones, such as Lai (2011), Angelaki & Mavroidis (2013), and Delialioglu et al. (2010). These cases allow conclusions to be drawn about the relationship of age to learner traits, even without a formal definition of “adult learner”. Other studies compare their adult learners to traditional learners from other studies by a literature review. This may lead to inconsistencies or unreliable data, since the comparison is not direct.
Institutions and instructors need to be aware of the greater self-directedness of adult learners; adults want options and opportunities for self-directed study. The research into adult learners implies that institutions and instructors have to make efforts to understand and meet the needs of this unique group. More research is needed into the relationship between work and learning for adult online students. Further research is needed comparing adult learners in academic online programs compared to non-degree and work-related learning, given that relevance to work may be an important factor in student motivation. The studies on the theme of interaction show that instructors need to be aware of the needs of adult students for feedback and to interact with one another. More interaction, sense of community, and presence of the instructor are all necessary for adult learners to do their best in online learning. More research into learning strategies among adults is needed, since this factor may greatly affect learning outcomes. Flexibility to account for different approaches and learning styles should be included by institutions; opportunities for self-directed and self-determined study should be given to these older learners, who have a greater capacity to make full use of it.
Table 1. Properties of Studies
Author and date |
Approach |
Number of participants |
Educational context |
Method |
Angelaki & Mavroidis (2013) |
Quantitative |
108 |
Various online university courses |
Survey |
Ausburn (2004) |
Quantitative |
67 |
Various hybrid university courses |
Survey |
Delialioglu, Cakir, Bichelmeyer, Dennis, & Duffy (2010) |
Quantitative |
2442 |
Non-degree certificate program |
Survey and student data analysis |
Dumais, Rizzuto, Cleary, & Dowden (2013) |
Mixed-methods |
308 |
Various college programs |
Survey and interview |
Dzakiria (2012) |
Qualitative |
8 |
Various online programs |
Interview |
Hagan (2013) |
Qualitative |
24 |
Graduates of an online program |
Interview |
Harsh & Sohail (2002) |
Qualitative/ Experimental |
15 |
One university course |
Survey |
Henry (2011) |
Quantitative |
15 |
Various post-graduate courses at one university |
Survey |
Ke (2010) |
Mixed-methods |
173 |
Various courses at a research university |
Survey, interview, and student data analysis |
Ke & Xie (2009) |
Quantitative |
51 |
Various courses at a research university |
Survey and student data analysis |
Lai (2011) |
Quantitative |
238 |
Job related non-degree courses |
Survey |
Park & Choi (2009) |
Quantitative |
147 |
Job-related non-degree courses |
Survey |
Pike & Adams (2012) |
Qualitative |
16 |
Various online programs by inmates |
Interview |
Rakap (2010) |
Quantitative |
46 |
One teacher certification course |
Survey |
Remedios & Richardson (2013) |
Quantitative |
1211 |
Various courses at one university |
Survey and student data analysis |