"This edited volume will highlight works that examine adult learners' motivation and momentum in online education. We aim to provide examples of strategies, tools, and practices educators and educational institutions use to encourage and support adult learners' motivation and momentum across a variety of online educational programs (e.g., micro-credentials, certificates, undergraduate through doctoral programs, lifelong learning applications). This edited volume will demonstrate a variety of strategies, tools, and practices that can be adapted to support the needs of diverse adult learners across a range of educational contexts"--

Online education has created an ever-expanding number of programs. Adult online learners are diverse and have varied talents, challenges, and motivations. They choose online learning for its convenience and accessibility, but the online learning environment can be flat and two-dimensional. Adult online learners can then become disengaged and disconnected—especially if the online learning experience does not support their social-emotional needs. More research on supporting the whole learner in adult online classrooms is required. Motivation and Momentum in Adult Online Education highlights unique and varied approaches to adult learners’ motivation and momentum in online education. It provides examples of strategies, tools, and practices educators and educational institutions use to encourage and support adult learners’ motivation and momentum across a variety of online educational programs. Covering topics such as academic coaching, faculty-student interaction, and student engagement, this premier reference source is an excellent resource for higher education leaders, professors, course instructors, advisors, curriculum developers, instructional designers, lifelong learning application developers, professionals in student support services, librarians, researchers, and academicians.

The classic interdisciplinary reference on adult education, updated for today's learning environment Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn provides adult educators with the information and strategies they need to guide non-traditional students toward positive educational outcomes. Providing a clear framework, guidelines for instructional planning, real-world examples, and cutting-edge ideas, this book fills the need for intrinsically motivating instruction targeted specifically toward adults returning to school. This new fourth edition sharpens the focus on community colleges, where most first-generation college students and working adults begin their higher education, and explores the rising use of technology and alternative delivery methods including a new chapter covering online instruction. Since the publication of its first edition, this book has become a classic reference for understanding adult motivation in educational and training settings. As more and more adults re-enter the educational system, instructors and trainers will find extraordinary value in this exploration at the intersection of research and practice. Examine the latest neuroscience and psychological research pertaining to adult motivation and learning Delve into alternative formats including online learning, interactive learning materials, and more Elicit and encourage adult intrinsic motivation using the Motivational Framework for Culturally Responsive Teaching and sixty practical, research-backed strategies Adopt a culturally responsive instructional approach for an inclusive and equitable learning environment. Adult students differ from traditional students in motivation, attitude, experience, and more; this, combined with an increasingly diverse body of students as well electronic delivery methods, makes today's teaching environment a new landscape for instructors to navigate. Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn provides a clear guide to success for instructors and students alike.

New to this edition is the blending of a neuroscientific understanding of motivation and learning with an instructional approach responsive to linguistically and culturally different adult learners. Based on the most current educational and biological research, Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn addresses issues that focus on deepening learner motivation and helping adults to want to learn. In the book, Raymond J. Wlodkowski offers a clear framework and sixty practical, research-based strategies that are designed to elicit and encourage learner motivation. In addition, the book is filled with practical examples, guidelines for instructional planning, and cutting-edge ideas for assessment and transfer of learning.

After ten years of online education, I had earned an MA and a Ph.D. Though incredibly grateful for this time of learning and growing, there was still something amiss once it was all finished. It wasn’t easy to figure out why I felt this way, but it finally came to me. Ultimately, I cannot point to one meaningful long-term friendship that was formed with either a peer or professor. The accessible, convenient, and affordable pathways of online educational delivery systems paved the way for me to achieve my learning goals, and for that, I am thankful. Yet, the feeling of being robbed of the human element and the benefit of gaining another’s perspective remained. Online education is here to stay. No one is arguing that fact. Even now, new technological advancements continue to emerge, offering innovative approaches to helping people to continue learning. I celebrate this and encourage it, but not at the expense of the human element. This book puts forward research-based findings that offer evidence that students, professors, and schools are far more likely to achieve their goals when solid friendships exist. A solidly Christian and Biblical perspective undergirds and supports the results of this one-and-a-half-year doctoral research project that is the basis for this book. Questions that are considered through these pages include: 1. Why do relationships matter in online education? 2. Who is responsible for creating relational connections in online education? 3. Where and when can social opportunities happen in online education? 4. Is there a Biblical precedent for learning in relational communities? 5. Are there dangers to learning in isolation? By using inspirational true stories, Biblical examples, and data gleaned from the research, arguments are made that all in online education win if genuine friendships exist and we enjoy the support of a Christian community.

Due to rapid technological advancements, evolving workplace structures, and a shift towards remote work, the nature of work is undergoing transformations influencing communication, work dynamics, and learning processes. Improving the skills of future workforces is now a necessity as the growth of work-skill misalignment and employability skills gaps becomes prevalent. Educational institutions must prepare students for the digital world by providing them with advanced knowledge and essential skills in modern technology. To positively shape the future workforce, effective solutions for skill revitalization should be explored. Revitalizing Student Skills for Workforce Preparation explores the intricacies of evolving and complex professional landscapes, including the challenges and opportunities of student skill development. The pivotal role of skill development in education is emphasized while delving into how effective skill education will shape the future workforce. This book covers topics such as digital technology, professional development, and emotional intelligence, and is a useful resource for educators, business professionals, and policymakers, academicians, researchers, and administrators.

Recent evolutions, such as pervasive networking and other enabling technologies, have been increasingly changing human life, knowledge acquisition, and the way works are performed and students learn. In this societal change, educational institutions must maintain their leading role. They have therefore embraced digitally enhanced learning to provide increased flexibility and access for their students. The Handbook of Research on Redesigning Teaching, Learning, and Assessment in the Digital Era provides insights into the transformation of education in the digital era and responds to the needs of learners of any context and background through relevant studies that include sound pedagogical and content knowledge. Covering key topics such as hybrid learning, media, remote learning, and social media, this major reference work is ideal for administrators, policymakers, academicians, researchers, scholars, practitioners, librarians, instructors, and students.

Children with learning disabilities can be as sharp as their peers; however, they may find it challenging to write, read, reason out information, spell things correctly, or process information. Due to this, it is critical for students to understand the ways of learning that suit them the best. They may not be aware of the different ways they can learn or may not be able to develop a self-reliant approach to learning and will often seek help. Perspectives of Cognitive, Psychosocial, and Learning Difficulties From Childhood to Adulthood: Practical Counseling Strategies provides a guide for understanding learning difficulties and sheds light on a variety of strategies that can be implemented in the class by teachers. The book also underscores the importance of literacy and numeracy and the relationship between learning difficulties and student wellbeing. Covering key topics such as counseling, coping strategies, and interventions, this premier reference source is ideal for administrators, policymakers, researchers, scholars, academicians, practitioners, instructors, and students.

This work explores and explicates learner motivation in online learning environments. More specifically, it uses a case-study approach to examine undergraduate students’ motivation within two formal and separate online learning contexts. In doing so, it recognizes the mutually constitutive relationship of the learner and the learning environment in relation to motivation. This is distinctive from other approaches that tend to focus on designing and creating motivating environments or, alternatively, concentrate on motivation as a stable learner characteristic. In particular, this book identifies a range of factors that can support or undermine learner motivation and discusses each in detail. By unraveling the complexity of learner motivation in such environments, it provides useful guidelines for teachers, instructional designers and academic advisors tasked with building and teaching within online educational contexts.

The use of academic discourse in today’s educational environment has the potential to improve education for students from all backgrounds. To achieve this, further study on the best practices, challenges, and future opportunities is required. Cultivating Critical Discourse in the Classroom shares the benefits of empowering and engaging students at all levels of education through the use of academic discourse. The book also provides insights for educators to become more knowledgeable, and therefore better equipped, to create spaces through discourse where cultural competence is cultivated. Covering key topics such as identity, linguistics, student autonomy, and language, this premier reference source is ideal for administrators, policymakers, industry professionals, researchers, academicians, scholars, practitioners, instructors, and students.