A case study of the adult learners’ mentoring in a cyber-university: based on participants’ experiences

The purpose of this article is to provide information and data that will contribute to the enhancement of teaching methodologies for online learning and teaching at all educational levels and disciplines (including adult education). More specifically, it attempts to shed light on media trends and prospects as educational activities and techniques, as well as on the utmost importance of the use of television content as audiovisual educational content. This venture focuses on the cases of Cyprus and Greece following literature materials and reviews, research results, and findings of previous numerous studies and research papers from and through the Internet that were considered as background. The aforementioned were applied in a pilot case study with adult educators as adult learners (18 years and older), providing literature data and historical elements as a source of further study. The findings from the pilot case study revealed that the television content can also shape (adult) learners’ perceptions on how they understand and learn in an online environment in regard to the generational cohort they belong. Furthermore, the results disclosed that an online educational process utilizing audiovisual media technologies and audiovisual content (audiovisual media communications) may support technology-enhanced learning through non-verbal communication in the new streamlined digital era in which we live. An important conclusion of this article is that the (inter)national genealogical characteristics and habits, the inherent and special characteristics, and the socio-cultural identity of learners, as well as the various (inter)national social-phenomena (e.g., media socio-phenomenon, Internet phenomenon, revival phenomenon, etc.) of the past and present, should always be taken into account by education administrators and educators, in order to maintain a quality and sustainable future education.

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Exploring online study behaviors of adult learners: A case study focusing on teachers’ professional development program

E-Learning and Digital Media ◽

10.1177/20427530211058289 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 204275302110582

Author(s):

Ünal Çakiroğlu ◽

Melek Atabay

Keyword(s):

Online Learning ◽

Adult Learners ◽

Adult Learning ◽

Development Program ◽

Methods Course ◽

Online Study ◽

Study Behaviors ◽

Program Characteristics ◽

Teachers Professional Development

It requires a lot of energy to support the adoption of online learning by adult learners. Thus, the question of how online learning intersects with adult learning may provide meaningful pathways to understanding online learning per se. This study aims to understand the online study behaviors of teachers enrolled in an online Educational Technology Master’s program. This case study involved a Research Methods course, which was part of an online project for teachers. An online control list form and interviews were used as data collection tools. The results indicated that sharing, problem solving, product development, monitoring, and research were prominent activities that shape the study behaviors. While some of the behaviors in these activities indicated the reshaping of previous study behaviors, other behaviors newly appeared during the program. Characteristics of adult learners, online setting features, and the context of the projects were the main factors that influenced study behaviors. Finally, the implications for better online adult learning experiences are addressed.

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Using Moodle to Teach Constructivist Learning Design Skills to Adult Learners

Virtual Learning Environments ◽

10.4018/978-1-4666-0011-9.ch308 ◽

2012 ◽

pp. 561-572

Author(s):

Douglas L. Holton

Keyword(s):

Instructional Design ◽

Adult Learners ◽

Open Source ◽

Management System ◽

Online Courses ◽

Learning Experience ◽

Learning Design ◽

Design And Implementation ◽

Design Skills

This chapter describes a case study of the design and implementation of an online project-based course for learning constructivist instructional design techniques. Moodle, a free and open source learning management system, was chosen as a tool to meet both the goals of the course and the needs and abilities of the adult learners in this course. Despite the instructor’s and students’ inexperience with both Moodle and online courses, Moodle greatly facilitated the process, resulting in a largely successful and motivating learning experience.

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Adult Learners Learning Online

Web-Based Education ◽

10.4018/978-1-61520-963-7.ch066 ◽

2010 ◽

pp. 947-961

Author(s):

Danilo M. Baylen

Keyword(s):

Instructional Technology ◽

Adult Learners ◽

Adult Learning ◽

Student Learning ◽

Effective Practice ◽

Online Experience ◽

The Creation ◽

K 12 ◽

Specific Technology

This chapter presents a case study in which an onlineexperience for adult learners facilitated improved understanding of blogs and its applications to K-12 classrooms. Data were primarily derived from archived documentation provided by students as components of several completed course assignments. The case studyillustrates and examines how the online experience, specifically the creation and maintenance of a blog, supported student learning about use and application of a specific technology. The chapter discusses processes and results given the contexts of adult learning and instructional technology as well as suggests directions for effective practice.

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Justification Based on Rational Training

Socio-Cultural Impacts of Workplace E-Learning ◽

10.4018/978-1-61520-835-7.ch008 ◽

2010 ◽

pp. 146-165

Author(s):

Karim A. Remtulla

Keyword(s):

Adult Education ◽

Adult Learners ◽

Sense Of Self ◽

Cultural Critique ◽

Learning Needs ◽

Exploratory Case Study ◽

E Learning ◽

Worker Identity ◽

And Training

This chapter produces a socio-cultural critique of the ‘rational training’ workplace e-learning scenario. In this workplace e-learning scenario, workplace e-learning for workplace adult education training is used to justify the workforce through standards, categories, and measures. The alienating effects that arise out of this rush towards technocentric rationalization of the workforce through workplace e-learning are also discussed. These are the unintended and paradoxically opposite outcomes to the effects actually anticipated. An exploratory case study problematizes the unquestioned acceptance of the technological artefacts of workplace e-learning within organizations as credible sources to provide a rationale to justify workforces within workplaces. This approach critiques the presumption of infallibility of the technological artefacts of workplace e-learning; considers the short-comings of the conceiving of workplace e-learning as ‘finished’; and, reveals the ‘underdetermined’ nature of workplace e-learning technological artefacts. Socio-cultural insensitivity from workplace e-learning, in this scenario, comes from the basic, unquestioned assumption that workers are essentially socially flawed and culturally inferior; accountable for overcoming their sociocultural flaws and inferiorities; and, need to be justified by workplace e-learning, through standards, categories, and measures, to meet the expectations of the infallible and commodified workplace. A workplace e-learning that is deployed to justify the workforce, through standardization, categorization, and measurement, all result in a workforce being alienated from: (a) each other (worker-worker alienation); (b) their work (worker-work alienation); and, (c) their personal identities and sense of self (worker-identity alienation). Social rationalization is not the means to social justice in the workplace when it comes to workplace adult education and training, workplace e-learning, and the diverse and multicultural learning needs of a global cohort of adult learners.

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What Really Happens When Adults Play?

Research Anthology on Adult Education and the Development of Lifelong Learners ◽

10.4018/978-1-7998-8598-6.ch066 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1330-1341

Author(s):

Jo A. Tyler

Keyword(s):

Adult Learners ◽

Adult Learning ◽

Real Time ◽

Simple Experiment ◽

Learning Intervention ◽

And Performance ◽

Learning And Performance

Play is an increasingly popular process for working with groups of adults in a range of contexts. We are increasingly sophisticated in our ability to integrate creative forms of play into our facilitated work with groups, often with excellent outcomes. Experience and research have deepened our understanding of how to design and implement powerful and effective playful scenarios in connection to objectives for adult learning and performance. We are convinced, intuitively and experientially, about the value of play. However, our confidence in the efficacy of play seems not to be matched by clear insights into why and how play actually achieves results. This conceptual article builds a case for the importance of understanding the nature of the influence play has on psychosocial spaces and group energy in the interest of better informing our application of play as a learning intervention. It advocates for designing ways of systematically and qualitatively researching the influence of play as it unfolds in real time. A brief case study of a simple experiment undertaken by the author at a session of the 2016 Playful Learning Conference is described here as a thought-starter for ways we might explore the psychosocial and energetic dynamics fostered when we introduce play as a way of purposefully engaging adult learners.

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ICT in the Indian Classroom

Advances in Human and Social Aspects of Technology - Human Development and Interaction in the Age of Ubiquitous Technology ◽

10.4018/978-1-5225-0556-3.ch004 ◽

2016 ◽

pp. 73-93

Author(s):

Geeta Nair ◽

Robert Hindle

Keyword(s):

Sustainable Development ◽

Adult Learners ◽

South Asia ◽

Open University ◽

Inclusive Growth ◽

New Era ◽

Information And Communication ◽

Role Of Information

The present research paper discusses the pivotal role of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in education which is gaining currency in the new era of globalism as the telecom revolution has hastened the pace of globalization and vice-versa; along with the catalyst role ICT-enabled education plays in promoting inclusive growth and human development for all. These smart tools of the emerging smart economy would help to promote mass literacy and also narrow inter, as well as intra-generational gaps. Most importantly, it will provide ‘second opportunities' to the generation that missed them in the first place, thus helping adult learners, particularly the employed and women; thus attempting to reduce gender inequities; particularly in South Asia and the Indian sub-continent. The case study of the famous open University, namely Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) in India is being studies as a case of sustainable development and inclusive growth as it ‘reaches the unreached' and untouched and marginalized segments of society.

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Adult and Community Education in Border Communities: The ‘Borderlands’ Case Study

Irish Journal of Sociology ◽

10.1177/079160350701600209 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 16 (2) ◽

pp. 160-178

Author(s):

Rosemary Moreland

Keyword(s):

Adult Learners ◽

Community Education ◽

Community Outreach ◽

Education Programme ◽

Economic Disadvantage ◽

Study Approach ◽

Outreach Education ◽

Border Community ◽

Border Communities

Border communities suffer greater degrees of poverty and disadvantage than other areas, linked to their peripherality. In particular, where the border is contested, communities on either side are less likely to take advantage of facilities and opportunities across the border. Lifelong learning has recently been suggested as a means of attracting adult learners to return to education in order to tackle unemployment and socio-economic disadvantage. Through a case study approach, this paper examines the difficulties and possibilities of developing a cross-border community outreach education programme for adult learners, while also exploring the nature of borders and their impact on identities and communities at a time of change.

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Pronunciation among adult Indigenous language learners

Journal of Second Language Pronunciation ◽

10.1075/jslp.17042.bir ◽

2020 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Sonya Bird

Keyword(s):

Adult Learners ◽

Language Learning ◽

Language Learners ◽

Second Language Learning ◽

Teaching And Learning ◽

Acoustic Analysis ◽

Indigenous Language ◽

Coast Salish ◽

Learning And Teaching

Abstract This paper describes the features that set adult Indigenous language learning apart from other types second language learning, examining in particular the role that unique teaching and learning contexts might play in the acquisition of pronunciation. As a case study, the pronunciation of SENĆOŦEN (Coast Salish) /t’/ is compared across four groups of speakers, including two groups of adult learners. Acoustic analysis shows that /t’/, described as a weak ejective in previous work, is now consistently realized as a strong ejective, especially among learners and teachers. These findings are discussed with reference to factors relevant to language learning and teaching in general, as well as to ones relevant to Indigenous language learning and teaching in particular.

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