Adult Online Education

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 01: INTRODUCTION1

1.1. Background of the Study1

1.2. Aims and Objectives2

1.3. Research Questions2

1.4. Significance of the Study2

1.5. Layout of the Dissertation3

CHAPTER 02: LITERATURE REVIEW4

2.1. Introduction4

2.2. Online Education4

2.3. Adult Online Education5

2.5. Stress7

CHAPTER 03: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY9

3.1. Introduction9

3.2. Research Approach9

3.3. Overview of Quantitative Research Approach9

3.4. Informed Consent9

3.5. Confidentiality9

REFERENCES11

CHAPTER 01: INTRODUCTION

1.1. Background of the Study

Adult learners are the fastest growing population of higher education students. They seek career advancement and opportunities to improve their quality of life through graduate-level education programs. Many are married, hold jobs, and may even be raising children. Their education responsibilities are shouldered along with their many other life roles as spouse, employee, parent, and community member. These students are attracted to distance education degree programs because they are able to maintain their careers and family life, yet still pursue an advanced education degree (Endler & Parker, 1994, p. 50).

They seek programs that offer flexibility in time and place of content delivery, an institution that understands their learning needs, accessibility, and opportunities to control the pace of their education. This independent learning allows them to prioritize their many responsibilities, balancing work and family roles with their educational pursuits. With so many adults seeking opportunities for new learning, delivery of education via distance education has quickly expanded to over 1.9 million enrollees in 2002 (Helland and Stallings, 2002, p. 396).

With the introduction of the Internet and software tools that facilitate communication, the use of web-based education has developed rapidly. However, this growth has not been problem free. The experience of distance education institutions is a dropout rate as high as 70% of initial course enrollees.

Students are entering these programs in large numbers but are struggling to complete courses and reach their graduation goals. Despite an increasingly larger percent of adults entering graduate level higher education, the causes of student drop out has only been partially defined. The most well-known and well-researched theory of student attrition was developed by Vincent Tinto, who considers student departure to be a product of social and academic interaction as it occurs on a traditional undergraduate campus. Tinto's model may not be useful in describing persistence of the adult, online student, where social integration is less important to adult learners in distance education than it is to the residential, traditional student (Kennedy & Powell, 1976, p. 61).

Because of the strong influence of socioeconomic responsibilities and commitments on adult learners attending school part-time, their focus is not as much forming peer relationships as it is on meeting the institution's scholastic expectations. The adult learner has less interaction in the college environment with peers and faculty and even less interaction through extracurricular activities and the use of campus services. They have a greater interaction with the non-collegiate external environment. The external community can affect an adult student's ability to cope with the pressures of academic life, which in turn could influence a student's decision to persist (Schreier & Abramovitch, 1996, p. 445).

Adult learners returning to the academic setting face many barriers or challenges to their persistence ...