Motivating the Older adult learner
With the way the economy is going, people that have 20 or more years of experience getting laid-off, I am finding more and more Adult Learners of advancing age (the 50+ crowd), entering into the technical training environment, either in the classroom or online. My Question is this, Some of these older students find technology extremely intimidating, How do we keep these students motivated when they have a strong fear of computers?
Michael, my experience with the Adult learners has been very good. I've had a couple of retirees and some about to retire and they are very engaged. They might struggle a little bit more with the technology and ask more questions but they show a lot of interest, participate and work harder than everybody else. I have to say that they have been some of my best students.
Susan,
I love this design. More folks need to see and develop the WHOLE online learning picture. I really like how you have online/digital textbooks as well on their devices. If we are going to use the technology we should embrace it and do it right.
Herbert Brown III
Where I work all of our classes are based on a moodle room platform. We issue all of our students iPads. Everything, including their books are on iPads.
The students are told this on their tour of our school. On the day of orientation, we get them on their iPads to download books, apps and start an online class so they can negotiate through the curriculum . They are also in classes with students who have 12 weeks under their belt or more. This is helpful because not only the teachers help the new students so do the returning students. The returning students love the opportunity to help the new students and it helps with the team environment.
Our school has students of all ages, from out of high school to the new student looking for a change in career. It seems to be working very well for us.
Kathy,
Thank you for raising this caution on behalf of students they may feel challenged by the technology or format of an online course. Letting them get settled in and helping them build some confidence in their ability to be successful goes a long way in keeping them engaged.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I too am an older adult who earned my degrees in the pre-computer era. Although I now consider myself to be computer savey, I was intimidated by the entire process of returning to school after a long layoff to take a graduate online writing course. I found that the quick pace of the chat sessions in particular can be difficult for the older adult who tends to deliberate and organize thoughts mentally before expressing them in writing.
Daniel,
These resources you have identified are great help to many of the "beyond 30" adult learners who are rapidly increasing in number and are virtual classrooms. Thank you for your contribution.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
Older students can be intimidated by technology. One technique that I encourage is the use of Wikipedia and YouTube (yes, there is more to YouTube than cute kittens, puppies, and babies). I point older students to these areas in order to get some basic knowledge of different areas of technology. I also give the student the Help Desk telephone number for assistance when they are trying to do different things in the learning platform. Finally, there are many free classes that campuses offer to assist students in learning the different areas of technology that the campus has to offer.
Devon,
Generally, this seems to be consistent with many istructors' experiences. Again, I think the audio, real-time communication can go a long way for many of these learners. Good post.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
I find that older students are more organized and generally better students. Technology being intimidating can be overcome with phone calls concerning computer problems or fear of computers.
Hi Michael,
I would give these adult learners my telephone number to call me for a discussion. You have to make them feel comfortable and confident that they can learn the new technology. I would then guide those who need further assistance to on-campus tutor, where available. If not, I would use some type of technology such as "netmeeting" to do a one-on-one training at a particular time and day for those who require it.
Hi Cindy, you make a good point about teaching them how to use the technology. One of the issues we have found with providing links to resources to fill learning gaps is that the learners that need the supplemental resources don't use them. Tina
I say we teach them how to use technology or give them links to fill their learning gaps.
I find that one of the best ways to motivate the older adult learner is to take the time to find out what their professional/personal history is and to bond with the individual over it. You can use this information to help better explain information by making references to real world experiences. They seem to be much more likely to respond to the "real world applicability" of an idea than otehr students.
Share my experiences with them. I too re-entered school as an older adult and I was intimidated as well. I give them pointers on how to navigate their way around computers and to communicate with me often when they are having difficulties.
MIchael I have the same issues with older students. It is not necessairly technology however, but their lack of self-confidence in competing with the younger students. I always try to remilnld them that they have wisdom to share;therefore, both young and older alike can have a symbotic relationship
While technology can be extremely intimidating for older students, those students that take online courses know that they must conquer the fear of the computer. With that being said, I think that the online instructor has unique privilege to not only teach the coursework but also encourage those older students to persevere. Learning something new is hard for everyone
I am almost in that age category (55+)! I have older students, who struggle, if my course is the first class that they are taking, online...
Most of the time, I recognize potential candidates for fear of technology by their personal introductions on the Discussion Board. After frustrating some of my early students, I have come to accept the need to spend additional time by telephone and chat, so that they will overcome their fear by the end of the first three assignments. In addition, our school has free online classes/workshops to help these students - they provide better training than I do!
It's never too late as stated above. I truly respect that someone has the courage to better themselves no matter what age.
Good for them. My 85 year old father just took his first internet course.
My older students are motivated and much more organized than many in my classes.
Marybeth
