This learning module aims to help students better understand adult learners entering community college and empathize with individuals from various backgrounds. By the end of the module, students will gain the knowledge of the following:

1. Who are adult learners? What are the motivations and barriers adult learners face?
2. Why are many adult learners enrolling in community college Career and Technical Education programs?
3. The difference between certificate and degree programs.
4. Understand the educational theories behind adult learning.
5. Criticisms of adult learning theories.
6. How to motivate adult learners through technology to better equip them for college?

All students enter college to get a job that can provide a better living for themselves and, possibly, for their families in the future. Many students will join a four-year institution right after high school, but only 41-57 percent complete a bachelor's degree.^[1] Not completing college is an unfortunate occurrence for many individuals after high school. Some individuals do not go straight to college after high school. These individuals had other ideas on their minds besides high school.

Whether it was finding a job, raising a family, or not being able to afford to go, these individuals had no initial plans to go to college, or they did, but life got in the way. This learning module will explain those individuals and how they choose to enroll in college. More specifically, these individuals are enrolling in Career and Technical Education programs at 2-year community colleges, where these institutions have more successful outcomes for this population.^[1] Also, this learning module will give students a better understanding of the motivations of adult students and how instructors can motivate students through gamification.

This module's key terms are adult learners, career and technical education, constructivism, behaviorism, and gamification.

The agenda for this module is as follows:

• Adult Learners: Who are Adult Learners and Why are They Entering College?
• Community Colleges and Career and Technical Education Programs: Why are They Popular with Adult Learners?
• Constructivism and the Adult Learning Process.
• Criticisms of Constructivism: Is There A Better Way to Teach Adult Learners?
• How to Motivate Adult Learners Through Their Most Challenging Barrier? Technology.
• Conclusion
• Learning Assessment

Class Discussion: Students are expected to answer the following questions. 

1. What are some of the reasons why you are attending?
2. What are some of the obstacles you face while at college?

Play Video:

                                                         ​(Is college worth it, 2014)

• There are many reasons why individuals attend college, but many do not succeed after high school or do not attend due to circumstances. These individuals are called adult learners.
• Adult learners are 25 years old or older who are entering college for the first time or returning after a hiatus due to life situations (e.g., work, family, financial obligations).
• Also known as non-traditional students, adult learners benefit from the flexibility of the different modalities colleges and universities now provide (e.g., evening classes, online, hybrid learning, and part-time class schedules). 
• Adult Learners are separate from Adult Education students. Adult education students do not possess a high school diploma and are now taking classes to pursue their equivalents. The focus is on adult learners, but many adult education students face struggles similar to those of adult learners.

Challenges Adult Learners Face Entering College

• Adult learners are faced with various challenges while they attend college.

1. Adult learners must balance their work-life roles while trying to earn a college certificate or degree (Osam et al., 2017). Many adult learners are parents and have a full-time job. They cannot afford not to take care of their responsibilities while attending college. Therefore, adult learners must find ways to sort through their everyday lives to make it to class. For example, adults must find childcare for their children when it may be challenging to find suitable childcare, such as in the evening when children are not in school but the college is in session.

2. Another example is that adult learners must go to work to pay their bills and to pay for college. Many adults would prefer to stay in the workforce to enter college due to the responsibilities that adults have after high school. However, women are more likely to drop out of the workforce to enter college than men, which causes increased stress among women trying to find the balance between caring for their homes and their studies (Osam et al., 2017, pp. 56-57).

3. Adult learners who must balance their work with college also manage the challenge of the lack of flexibility for college classes (Bellare et al., 2023, pp. 36). While many colleges have increased their flexibility in courses through the years, with the onset of online learning, many students who have not taken classes in years or decades prefer the same methodology that adult learners used in high school. Adult learners prefer in-person instruction, but it is difficult for college institutions to schedule morning and evening courses every day of the week (Bellare et al., 2023, pp. 36).

4. Adult learners face the challenge of using current technology in their courses. Many adults face computer programs like Microsoft Excel or PowerPoint, which they must use more frequently outside high school (Bellare et al., 2023, pp. 34). The technology barrier is one of the biggest obstacles for adult learners entering college to learn new skills (Bellare et al., 2023, pp. 34).

What Motivates Adult Learners to Attend College?

• Some of the barriers adult learners have are also their motivators for success.
• Adult learners seek opportunities to advance at their place of employment or to seek better career opportunities due to factors such as the decline of blue-collar jobs and automation and to fill the void of the retiring population (Bellare et al., 2023, p. 31).
• Adult learners are motivated by their families (Gardner et al., 2022, p. 27). The prospect of creating an opportunity so that their family, especially their children, motivates adult learners to pursue college and self-worth that makes their family proud of their accomplishments.
• The barriers adult learners face, such as a low-paying job and childcare, are the same motivational factors that keep adult learners from wanting to pursue a college certificate or degree (better employment opportunities and family worth).

Community College: Realistic Expectations

Play video: https://youtube.com/shorts/45O6xqLe0Sg?si=jAMqa3obFT-jUxM9 (Is community college right for you, 2024).

Class Discussion: Did you attend a community college during your educational journey, and what were their expectations at the institution?

Community College

• Community colleges offer affordable programs that provide the flexibility to attract adult learners.
• Community colleges can either prepare students planning to transfer to a four-year institution or prepare them for the workforce sooner with degrees or certificates.
• Trends have indicated that the number of students who complete a two-year institution with a degree or certificate has steadily increased (Dembicki, 2023).
• Certificates and micro-certificates have become popular with individuals trying to enter the workforce sooner, especially adult learners (Suarez, 2024). Earning a certificate allows individuals to upscale their employment options with credentials to back up the skills they learn, giving them an advantage in the workforce. 

Career and Technical Education: Feeding the Needs of a Growing Labor Market

                                                                     (Johnson, 2024a)

Many community colleges have a Career and Technical Education (CTE) Department that is responsible for creating programs designed to get students trained into the workforce sooner than a four-year institution, compared to the liberal arts departments that prepare students to transfer to another institution. 

• Many CTE programs can be completed sooner than a two-year associate's degree with the certificate programs offered, where students learn the essential components of a skill that can translate into better opportunities in the workforce.
• CTE departments are employer-driven, fostering an environment where students are trained at industrial standards and can access employment opportunities. Also, many CTE  programs are designed to be flexible to accommodate working students to improve quality and higher wages in a technical workforce. Flexible class schedule offers an incentive for students to gain skills during their available time and the ability to earn more at a quicker pace.^[1]
• Many CTE classes provide hands-on instruction, and students learn by practicing the skills to retain the knowledge.

Why are CTE Programs Enticing to Adult Learners

CTE allows individuals to earn credentials sooner than going to a four-year institution. Adult learners must balance work-life and education, and CTE programs enable adult learners to learn a skill reasonably quickly. Also, CTE programs are in many job sectors, such as manufacturing, healthcare, service, and hospitality, where those newly learned skills can increase a person's salary. Moreover, the flexibility of courses helps students navigate their educational path without significantly sacrificing an obligation to their respective roles (Parent, spouse, provider, etc.), hoping to secure that lucrative dream job. 

Play video on how CTE certificate programs can help adult learners:

                                           (WEI at heartland community college, 2024)

Class Discussion: What method did you find that enhanced your learning process in college?

Constructivism is a "learning theory that emphasizes the active role of learners in building their understanding. Rather than passively receiving information, learners reflect on their experiences, create mental representations, and incorporate new knowledge into their schemas. This promotes deeper learning and understanding" (McLeod, 2024).

Left to right: Actual photo of Jean Piaget (Jean Piaget Biography, 2021), AI image of Piaget as a welder, AI image of Piaget as construction worker (Johnson, 2024j)

Jean Piaget, an early 20th-century psychologist who worked on children's cognitive development, developed constructivism. Piaget believed that children are not passive learners but active learners who learn best through exploring and interacting with their environment (Mcleod, 2024). When comparing children's cognitive development to adults, the hands-on learning that CTE classes tend to have makes constructivism the best approach to understanding the adult learner.

• This module will focus on three focal aspects of constructivism:

1. Active Learning
2. Collaborative Learning
3. Problem-Solving

Active Learning:

Instructor providing hands-on learning to a student. (Johnson, 2024g)

• Adult learners receive instruction primarily through active teaching methods, which provide knowledge retained through the student's experiences and the ability to interact openly with their environment (Doolittle et al., 1999).
• The learning environment mimics real-world environments in CTE laboratories, so students can get an authentic feel for what they are learning and get real-world experience in fields adult learners want to work in (Doolittle et al., 1999). Welding classes look and feel like weld shops in factories, or automotive classes are replicated to look and feel like automotive centers where work is being done.
• Through active learning, students can retain knowledge through their education experience in a simulated environment that reflects real-world applications.

Collaborative Learning (Interdependence)

Group of nursing students working together. (Johnson, 2024f)

• Adult learners are learning to work with other students in CTE classes, which simulates a diverse working population.
• Various student populations and their shared classroom experience will become a reflection of their grades.
• Interdependence in the classroom is a simulated experience for real-world environments that promotes the team-building that employers look for in workers.
• CTE classes can be the precursor for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices learned through employment onboarding, especially in CTE programs dominated by men.
• Stephen Billet states that "workers need to engage in the socioculturally derived and supported practices that make up the workplace in order to secure the knowledge required for work" (Billet, 2008, p. 40). Instructors can actively promote an inclusive environment where everyone feels welcomed, and students can retain those shared experiences of DEI practices (Jefferies, 2023, pp. 258).

Problem-Solving Through the Use of Technology

AI image of students playing a game in the classroom (Johnson, 2024b)

Technology is a significant barrier for adult learners.

• CTE programs provide hands-on instruction with minimal passive instruction. Many CTE courses have a technology component, requiring students to use technology. Whether using an e-learning textbook or completing assignments and quizzes online through an educational platform, students must use technology for many CTE programs.
• Not understanding the technology used in class can present a barrier for many adult learners, where the pressure to use unfamiliar technology can negatively affect student success.
• Instructors can use gamification, an interactive, engaging process of learning the technology required for their courses through games. This could help students problem-solve the use of technology.

Culinary students working as a team during an interactive game in the classroom (Johnson, 2024e)

Gamification in education involves using game mechanics like point-scoring and rewards to make learning more engaging and fun. By tapping into students' natural desire for competition and achievement, GamificationGamificationate mGamificationarning experiences (Kurt, 2023).

1. Gamification taps into the focal points of constructivism, where students learn through active listening and collaboration (Machmud et al., 2023, pp. 2417).
2. Gamification offers competitive social interaction with other students and critical feedback from the instructor, which can help students become better team members in the workforce (Sánchez Prieto et al., 2021).
3. Gamification is interactive in classrooms, where the tal media and other modalities can keep students engaged and motivated to participate actively in class (Machmud et al., 2023, pp. 2417).
4. Instructors can use GamificationGamificationlt learners get acclimated to the technology used in class. They can also provide a competitive atmosphere that rewards students for their participation, and students can reflect on their experience as motivational factors for their success.
5. Play video of gamificationGamificationutubeGamificationBqMSRFcTQ_E?si=YqpI9DxA73u7J6eG
6. Play video of gamification examples:
   Media embedded November 17, 2024

                                  (Top 5 gamification examples in education today, 2020)

Gamification will apply all the elements of constructivism to create a more engaging, motivating process that adult learners will enjoy and better prepare them for their classes. 

​Class Discussion: Remembering the previous module, where I asked about the best learning processes for college students, how many learn best by explanation and then absorbing the material? Why was that the best approach for you? 

• If that approach was good for you, you are a behaviorism fan.
• Behaviorism is the criticism of constructivism in CTE courses.

• Behaviorism, a theory of learning based on the idea that all behaviors are acquired through conditioning and that conditioning occurs through interaction with the environment (Cherry, 2022), could be another way to teach adult learners.

• Behaviorism was the center school of thought in the 20th century for teaching CTE courses (Doolittle & Camp, 1999).

• The best approach for teaching students in CTE programs was behaviorism, which involved didactic learning. In this approach, the instructor lectures, gives advice, and practices while the student listens, does their work, and expects to retain all the knowledge through passive learning. Behaviorism "treats the individual as a subject utterly reliant on its environmental surroundings" (Jackson, 2009, p. 21).

• While more CTE programs offer constructivist instruction, many employers are abandoning their current DEI practices, where leadership provides the structure of strategies without inclusive engagement from its diverse workforce, especially in male-dominated fields (Boring & Delfgaauw, 2024, pp. 473). Employers could pressure community colleges to teach more didactically since they are partners in creating a workforce within the community.

Class Discussion: Explain the differences between the two AI Images.

(Johnson, 2024h)

• Adult learners pursuing education through career and technical education programs offered at community colleges are motivated through constructivist programming.
• Adult learners want the hands-on learning that most CTE programs provide, where they can learn from their experiences by actively listening and practicing in simulated environments designed to mimic actual workplaces through the constructivist approach. 
• Engaging with instructors and other students helps adult learners gain interdependence. Their shared experiences enhance the knowledge retained in class and provide the blueprint for becoming successful team players in the workforce.
• While technology is a barrier for many adult learners, instructors can provide resource material to help guide students or design an interactive approach to using technology through Gamification.

Left: Students competing in a weld simulation contest (Sharpley, 2012) / Right: AI image of a weld simulation (Johnson, 2024c)

• Providing resources to help adult learners use the technology required for the class is helpful, but adding an interactive game will help build confidence in adult learners and enable them to be engaged in the class and interact with other students and faculty. 

(Johnson, 2024d)

Peer-Review Project

Step 1: Envisioning Your Success!

For this section, you will now complete a peer-review project.

As an adult learner, you are tasked with envisioning your success! For the first step, you are to create an AI image that defines where you want to be after you graduate and to write a summary of why you chose the words to determine your success. This project aims to empathize with how others see themselves regarding success. While you may have a positive or complex vision of yourself, many adult learners do not know what success means to them and are unsure how to define it. Therefore, you are to create an image that describes you and explains your motivations and barriers that may get in your way. The requirements for this project are as follows:

1. Create an AI image from Craiyon (Free AI Image Generator): Craiyon - Your FREE AI image generator tool: Create AI art! or from an AI generator of your choosing. You can create multiple images. Select the one you deem best defines your success.
2. Upload the picture on its own in the assessment.
3. Write a summary (1-2 pages, double-spaced, 12-point font) with the AI image on the summary, explaining why you decided to use the generated image you selected.
4. Explain the words you used to create the image.
5. What is your definition of success, and where do you see yourself after graduation?
6. What are the motivators and challenges that you see that are in the path of your success?
7. What are you doing to reach your success, and how are you minimizing your barriers?

Submit Peer-Review Project

Step 2: Feedback on Peer's AI images

This section aims to provide feedback on other students' images and interpret how success is envisioned through someone else's art. Once all the students have submitted the AI image (Not the summary with the image, which will be graded separately), the AI images will be posted to a discussion board anonymously, where students are to comment on at least two AI images. With a minimum of 100 words, explain your interpretation of success from the AI images you selected. The goal is for the creator of the original AI image to see if others feel the way they do or if the students who gave feedback on the art have a different meaning to what they see.    

The Purpose of the Project:

Using AI to envision your success creates a design from your prompts. Your words are now being imagined in a way that words cannot be made. Therefore, AI adds another conceptual element of different pathways to feeling. Students can use AI regularly to create how they feel. In this case, students will create their feeling of success, and other students can give feedback on that vision to feel comradery towards other students and build confidence in technology. This is a barrier for many adult learners. 

Please follow the link for the knowlege quiz: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf2FJBD21Qo6nICEsb-tomNRoO_5I_zyeNMwIcRxy8you9smg/viewform?usp=sf_link

Please follow the link for the Assessment and Evaluation Survey: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe6noqIjNARGorVmF9mk6PcfhdKrziOnYsshZfPAOODv1sylg/viewform?usp=sf_link