One designed especially to meet the needs of the working adult who has acquired sixty or more college credit hours during previous enrollments, and is returning to the school after an extended period of absence to complete a baccalaureate degree. The institution’s promise that the student will be able to complete the program in fewer than two years of continuous study is realized through provisions such as establishing alternative class schedules, truncating the traditional semester/quarter time frame, organizing student cohorts, and awarding credit for prior learning experiences equivalent to approximately 25% of the bachelor’s degree credit hour total ( Taylor, 2000 ). There are more than 284 such programs as of the Task Force on Adult Degree Completion’s analysis in 1993 ( Taylor, 2000 ).
Published in Chapter:
Asynchronicity, Access, and Attainment: Best Practices of an Adult Degree Completion Program
Mathew J. Bergman (University of Louisville, USA), Kevin J. Rose (University of Louisville, USA), and Meera Alagaraja (University of Louisville, USA)
Copyright: © 2015
|Pages: 20
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-8170-5.ch018
Abstract
In this chapter, the authors share specific ways in which the Organizational Leadership and Learning Program provides excellence in access, cost effectiveness, learning effectiveness, and faculty and student satisfaction. The program is designed to meet the needs of adult learners with some college but no degree and incorporates the use of asynchronous content delivery and faculty-student interaction. The exposure to course content via an online platform, interaction with students and faculty online, and the development of a learning community at a distance equips students not only with content knowledge, but also with technical prowess that is necessary in a technology-based workplace. Despite the relative ease of access and clear benefits of higher education, challenges still exist with educating an adult population. Therefore, it is essential that more adult friendly practices become integrated into the fabric of traditional four-year colleges and universities.