Creating content for the adult learner

Adult Learners' Traits Self-direction Adults feel the need to take responsibility for their lives and decisions and this is why it’s important for them to have control over their learning. Therefore, self-assessment, a peer relationship with the instructor, multiple options and initial, yet subtle support are all imperative. Practical and results-oriented Adult learners are usually practical, resent theory, need information that can be immediately applicable to their professional needs, and generally prefer practical knowledge that will improve their skills, facilitate their work and boost their confidence. This is why it’s important to create a course that will cover their individual needs and have a more utilitarian content. Less open-minded and therefore more resistant to change. Maturity and profound life experiences usually lead to rigidity, which is the enemy of learning. Thus, instructional designers need to provide the “why” behind the change, new concepts that can be linked to already established ones, and promote the need to explore. Slower learning, yet more integrative knowledge Aging does affect learning. Adults tend to learn less rapidly with age. However, the depth of learning tends to increase over time, navigating knowledge and skills to unprecedented personal levels. Use personal experience as a resource Adults have lived longer, seen and done more, have the tendency to link their past experiences to anything new and validate new concepts based on prior learning. This is why it’s crucial to form a class with adults that have similar life experience levels, encourage discussion and sharing, and generally create a learning community consisting of people who can profoundly interact. Motivation Learning in adulthood is usually voluntary. Thus, it’s a personal choice to attend school, in order to improve job skills and achieve professional growth. This motivation is the driving force behind learning and this is why it’s crucial to tap into a learner’s intrinsic impetus with the right thought-provoking material that will question conventional wisdom and stimulate his mind. Multi-level responsibilities Adult learners have a lot to juggle; family, friends, work, and the need for personal quality time. This is why it’s more difficult for an adult to make room for learning, while it’s absolutely crucial to prioritize. If his life is already demanding, then the learning outcome will be compromised. Taking that under consideration, an instructional designer needs to create a flexible program, accommodate busy schedules, and accept the fact that personal obligations might obstruct the learning process. High expectations Adult learners have high expectations. They want to be taught about things that will be useful to their work, expect to have immediate results, seek for a course that will worth their while and not be a waste of their time or money. This is why it’s important to create a course that will maximize their advantages, meet their individual needs and address all the learning challenges. How To Motivate Adult Learners Adults, unlike children, teenagers and students, in most cases, have a lot of things on their minds and your course is probably the last one of them. In addition, your adult learners don't see the rewards of their efforts as soon as they would expect, and giving them candy doesn't work as it works with children. Also, academic habits, they once possessed are also long forgotten. Least but not last, a lot of the learners are often forced to take on your course to enhance their skills, keep their job, get a job, or continue further with their career plans. All this makes it difficult to motivate learners and make them active participants. Here are 17 Tips To Motivate Adult Learners that you might try. Create useful and relevant learning experiences based on the age group and interests of your learners Emphasize on the practical knowledge. It is important to design a course that provides immediate relevancy. Learning materials that can be put into practice. Adult learners appreciate more practical knowledge, rather than extraneous facts and theories. Facilitate exploration Even though children are famous for their exploratory nature and curiosity, adult learners, too, sometimes like to take the opportunity to construct knowledge in a way that is meaningful to them. For this reason, you should have all sorts of materials, references, infographics, short videos, lectures, podcasts and free resources available. In such a perfect learning environment learners are more likely to get inspired or find something that makes them want to learn more. Build community and integrate social media Keep in mind that social media websites are a powerful tool for collaboration, commenting and sharing. You can facilitate group discussions and communities. People will quickly start exchanging knowledge, and will also have fun, social media is fun! A voice behind the video is not enough Add a personal touch. Your course needs to have a face. Make yourself available to people, invite subject-matter experts, authors, professors and other specialists in live online discussions and question and answer sessions. Challenge through games Come up with different problem solving exercises and case studies. Make your learners look for and find solutions. Use humor Humor would work great even with the most demotivated learners on your course. When your students know you are funny, they will listen to your material carefully, cause they wouldn't want to miss on your witty sense of humor. You can never lose with that. Chunk information Chunking is essential, as it helps people remember and assimilate information. Small bits are easier to process. Add suspense Don't give out everything your course is about in the beginning. Yes, you need an overview, but keep some interesting points until the time is right. No one likes to read a book if they know what's about to happen. Accommodate individual interests and career goals Empower learners to work on these goals and individualize the training to suit their needs. Stimulate your learners Encourage them to think by either providing them with brain teasers, or by asking thought-provoking questions. Let learning occur through mistakes According to a German proverb "you will become clever through your mistakes". Have you heard the famous expression: "Practice makes perfect"? Of course you have! Henry Roediger who started a learning experiment divided his students in two groups. Group A studied natural sciences paper for 4 sessions, while group B studied the same paper for one session and was tested on it three times. According to the experimenter, one week later, students from group B performed 50% better than Group A, even though they studied the paper less. The results clearly support the argument that "practice makes perfect". Make it visually-compelling Did you know that 83% of learning occurs visually? Get Emotional If you don't sound inspiring, if your materials are not exciting, how will you motivate your learners? Get them emotionally involved too – come up with controversial statements, tap on memories, add real-life stories. Get examples of their workplace Your learners may not always remember to associate what is learned with its application at the workplace. Sometimes they might need reminders and a clue to help them make that connection. Be respectful to them Ask for feedback It is motivating to know that your opinion contributes to the course. Present the benefits of undertaking the course I don't know why I didn't start with this one. Sometimes outlining the benefits is all it takes. Applying Knowles’ 5 Adult Learning Theory Assumptions to Assumption #1 (Self-Concept) Create learning experiences that offer minimum instruction and maximum autonomy. A major aspect of designing adult courses is having a support system to offer guidance and help, while still giving the tools and resources they need to learn on their own terms. Adult learners acquire new information and build upon existing knowledge much more effectively if they are encouraged to explore a topic on their own. While younger learners might need to be guided through the learning process, mature learners will typically get more out of the experience if they are able to work autonomously. This might come in the form of self-study or group collaboration projects that involve minimal instructor intervention. Professionals can also offer simulations, scenarios, or games without prefacing them with any information. As such, the adult learners will have to explore the activity on their own, and decide which benefits and information they can take away from the experience. With that being said, you'll also want to have a support system in place if they need to ask questions or to overcome any obstacles that may be hindering the process. Assumption #2 (Adult Learner Experience) Include a wide range of instructional design models and theories to appeal to varied experience levels and backgrounds. Adult learners are more mature. Therefore, they have had more time to cultivate life experience and typically have a wider knowledge base. That means that you'll have to take into account that your adult learning audience is going to be more diverse, especially in terms of backgrounds, experience levels, and skill sets. While one adult learner may be well versed on how to search for resources online, another may have very little experience using the Internet. All of this must be considered when designing and developing your courses and activities. To appeal to different adult learners, it's often best to include a variety of different instructional design models and theories into your course or module. Survey your audience beforehand to determine any technical knowledge limitations they may have, as well as to assess their education levels. By doing this, you will also be able to create experiences that are informative and engaging, rather than too challenging or boring. For instance, if your target audience includes a number of adult learners who may already know how to use multimedia, then including them in your course will boost its effectiveness and make it more immersive. Assumption #3 (Readiness to Learn) Utilize social media and online collaboration tools to tie learning to social development. As we get older, we tend to gravitate more toward learning experiences that offer some sort of social development benefit. For example, we are often more ready to challenge ourselves with new learning opportunities if we know it will help us to fine tune skills that pertain to our social roles. From a professional point of view, social media and online collaboration tools can help you to incorporate this assumption into your deliverables. Create activities that encourage adult learners to use sites like LinkedIn and Google Plus as invaluable tools. This can help them to not only build their social network, but collaborate with those who share the same interests. Assumption #4 (Orientation to Learning) Emphasize how the subject matter is going to solve problems that an adult learner regularly encounters. Adult learners, essentially, need to know the why and when before they actively engage in the process. For example, they will not only want to know why they need to acquire specific information, but whether or not that information can be applied in the immediate future. Younger learners accept the fact that the knowledge they're acquiring today may not be used for quite some time. However, mature learners prefer to engage in experiences that help them to solve problems they encounter on a regular basis (in the here-and-now, rather than the future). So, you'll want to emphasize how the subject matter is going to help them solve problems immediately by offering real world examples and scenarios. Assumption #5 (Motivation to Learn) There must be a valid reason behind every course, module or educational activity. Motivation is key with adult learners. As such, you will need to motivate them to learn by offering them a reason for every activity, assessment, or module they'll need to complete. Professionals must explain why a particular course is being taught and why an adult learner must participate in an activity, in order for the overall experience to be meaningful and engaging. For example, if you are asking adult learners to complete a group collaboration task, you should also clearly define that this exercise will help them to build their team working and communication skills, even after the course is over. While younger learners won't need to necessarily know the reason why they are required to participate in an activity, adult learners need to feel as though they are more involved in the process of learning. Otherwise, they will question the validity of the course, given that they don't see any real need for acquiring the new knowledge or skills. Applying Knowles’ 4 Adult Learning Theory Principles to Principle of Andragogy#1 Adults must have a hand in the design and development of their learning experience. While, both adult and younger online learners must feel as though they are playing an active role in their own experience, for adult learners this is particularly important. They must truly be an integral part of the development and implementation of the curriculum, as well as of the evaluation process. Getting feedback from adult learners allows you to achieve this, as it offers you the opportunity to design learning materials, exams, and activities based upon the needs and wants of the adult learners. Principle of Andragogy#2 Experience should be at the root of all tasks and activities. What matters most in regards to adult education isn't the end result, but the experience that is gathered through instruction and activities. Rather than offering memorization tasks, create projects and exercises that encourage adult learners to go out and explore the subject matter, thereby gaining experience. By doing this, adult learners can learn from their errors and master their skills sets through first-hand experience. Adult learners can take on their own approach when solving problems, which will give them the chance to use their knowledge in a practical way. There will be trial-and-error involved, which is what makes the overall experience more meaningful and effective. Principle of Andragogy #3 Real life applications and benefits must be tied to the course. Adult learners need to be able to tie the subject matter to real world benefits and applications. If they cannot see how a module or activity will give them an advantage in real life, or how a particular course is going to apply to real world situations, then they won't be excited about the process. professionals can increase engagement by integrating scenarios into adult courses. This way, adult learners have the opportunity to directly see how what they are learning can be used in the real world. Principle of Andragogy #4 Give adult learners the opportunity to absorb information, rather than memorizing it. The content being offered in adult courses should be problem-centered, as adult learners' will want to immediately see how the instructions will help them to solve an issue they might encounter outside of the environment. This often means that the subject matter should offer them the chance to fine tune skill sets and acquire (and retain) practical knowledge by doing, rather than just memorizing. Create activities that allow adult learners to delve into specific tasks, such as simulations, that enable them to store the information in their long term memory through repetition and experience. These adult learning principles and assumptions can be applied to any deliverable in order to offer your adult learners a wide range of benefits, including improved comprehension of key concepts and a boost in knowledge retention.