Characteristics of adult education programs

In this final section, we will touch on a number of diverse issues pertaining to the design of courses or programs for adult learners.

The first deals with the issue of flexibility as opposed to the specification of objectives at the outset of the course. There is nothing wrong with thinking through the concepts that will underpin a certain course, but the teacher should avoid objectives becoming millstones. As the course unfolds, ideas and directions, which at the outset did not seem important, might well acquire a powerful significance. As Brookfield (1990, p. 214) puts it, "One cannot specify in advance which changes one wishes to make when it is a question of redefining the self, reinterpreting past behaviors, or attempting to grant meaning to current or past experiences. This is one reason why the idea of continuous negotiation and renegotiation is stressed so strongly as a feature of effective practice. Only if this renegotiation is possible can one abandon previously formulated goals as these become demonstratably irrelevant and begin to formulate ones that will allow learners to explore new directions that appear to them to be more meaningful than those identified in advance by a facilitator, however perceptive he or she may be."

Looking specifically now at online conferencing, Harasim (1989) suggests that online environments can enhance three aspects of learning; idea generation, idea linking, and idea structuring. The first is easily realized by the distribution of information using telecommunications, followed by an online discussion, debate or brainstorming session on a listserv or bulletin board. The technology for the latter two processes may be less developed. Idea linking involves identifying associations between ideas, as for example in a concept map, and connecting new material to these linkages. Idea structuring involves organizing the ideas and linked concepts into some kind of hierarchical or sequential structure that will allow the ideas to be put into action.

It is important that the teacher of an online course be aware of how it differs from face to face situations. As Harasim et al (1995) point out, "online group learning is student centered and requires a different role for the teacher, of facilitator rather than lecturer." In a traditional classroom the teacher directs the instruction, sets the pace, and is responsible for keeping order and the learners on task. The online role entails a different set of priorities. "The teacher plans the activities but then follows the flow of the conversation, offering guidance as needed rather than strictly adhering to the preplanned agenda or syllabus."(p. 174) This principle of online teaching coincides well with that of adult education.

Reflecting on the Western Behavioral Sciences Institute experience, Feenberg (1993) suggests that strategies that work in a regular classroom do not necessarily transfer directly to the online medium. For example, presentations that resembled written lectures had the effect of "reducing the participants to silence". While those who "experimented with nondirective techniques had even more disappointing results"(p. 191). Better interaction was obtained when the sessions were molded along the lines of a college seminar. In order to achieve this effect, the "online equivalent for such things as opening the discussion with a short orientation session, calling on individuals to speak, assigning work to be delivered in class, getting a sense of the group's wishes, and distributing short readings for discussion and comment" (p. 192) were devised.

Finally, Levin (1995) has considered several sets of guidelines proposed by successful online projects, including his own, and synthesized these into five clusters. Online projects that have been successful have grappled with these sets of issues and addressed them in one way or another.
* Structure. The networked activity needs to occur within a defined structure. The structure might be defined by a set of lessons, or by a sequence of tasks.
* Process. The activity is outlined with clearly defined phases. A telecollaborative activity might for example have an introductory phase, a data collection phase, and a reporting phase. An online course might be divided into a series of lessons, each of which has an information presentation phases and an activity.
* Mediation. A key commonality of successful online projects is the role played by and active and effective moderator to initiate and sustain interaction.
* Community-Building. Successful projects occur within groups that see themselves as part of a close-knit community. Specific and purposeful community building has been a part of each of these projects.
* Institutional Support. The networks and the collaborative activities that they support need to be imbedded within an institutional structure, which provides security and continuity.