Summary

These pages have sought to document some of my exploration of distance learning and the adult learner. I’ve explored topics such as who is an adult learner, various theories about how we learn, and some considerations to remember when working with adult learners. In the later pages, I’ve explored strategies for working with adult learners in a distance or online learning environment. Here, I’ve explored topics such as planning a program, taken in considerations such as helping learners make well-informed decisions about distance learning, designing a learning community, developing policies and assessments, and ethical and legal issues such as plagiarism and copyright.

Areas for more investigation

As with any investigation, finding a few answers only leads to more questions. I’m specifically interested in answering these questions:

• How can an HRD organization prescribe andragogical practices to outsourced workforces?
• How can I tie andragogical principles to employee performance?
• How can a learning portal (the software) be learner-focused?

My final thoughts

As I’ve been guided through various theories, models, topics and critical thinking exercises during the past four months, in what would be considered a formal learning environment, I have had several moments of ‘ah ha’ as a result of my own self-learning.

Recalling that my motivation is to understand the adult learners that I write for, I discovered that my work falls within HRD, and that andragogical principles often conflict with performance-based instruction. Now I understand the conflict I felt when reading these principles and wondering how in the world I would implement them in my work.

Probably my most profound experience has been around transformational learning and learning intelligences (Gardner). These topics have taught me so much about myself – helping to answers decades-old questions about who I am as a human being.

As a result of this learning experience, it is my opinion that anyone can be an adult learner, if they want, whether it is formal coursework, or just keeping up with a hobby. Adult learners will recognize a need in their lives, then seek out knowledge or a perspective in hopes they can alleviate that need. And they’ll continue evaluating and seeking out until they feel they are successful. Regardless of their cultural perspective, or ability to process cognitively, persons who reflect on even minor everyday life events in such a way that the experience becomes a part of their self, reach a completely new level of personal development. Life-long learning creates better individuals, better family members, better employees, and better citizens.

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