Adult Learning

Continuing my lifelong learning journey in the summer of 2006, I again turned to my profession for inspiration when considering my course options. I chose to enroll in EAD861 Adult Learning because many of the faculty I'd worked with over the years were teaching students in online Masters programs intended for professionals. I'd been introduced through a community of practice in our office and my own professional organizations to the concepts of andragogy and understood that adult learners may have different needs than traditional students. There seemed to be a rich opportunity to learn more about these differences and leverage this knowledge in my day-to-day practice to improve the learning environment we provide and the advice I give to instructors. This also seemed to be a logical jumping off point from the courses I had taken so far which focused more on organizations and group dynamics. While I was interested in the relationship between learning organizations and how the adults in them learned, this was primarily an opportunity for me to focus on how to better perform the educational mission of the university.