The Changing Learners
Michael J. Sukowski
Who are our learners? Does the definition of traditional student (enters college immediately after high school graduation) still cover the majority of our undergraduate student populations? Can all higher education institutions meet the wide variety of needs of today’s learners, or will they choose to specialize? This chapter will look at our changing learners as defined by the question, who are our students; cover the challenges, such as shifting cultural references, technological diversity, college readiness, and very different student populations; and describe how we can prepare to teach these changing student populations.
Who Are Our Students?
While this chapter focuses primarily on higher learning in the United States, it can be applied to institutions globally as they face the main challenge of ensuring fair access and improving the student experience for all. An example would be the U.K. Parliament’s decision to increase tuition fees between £6,000 and £9,000 per year.
Institutions of higher learning, whether community colleges or colleges and universities, are trying to define who the students they are recruiting and attracting really are. Why are these learners selecting particular institutions? As with any product, what warranty, guarantees, and so on do we give our students? A certificate or degree does not assure them of getting the perfect job, or any job for that matter. How often do students graduate with a degree in one subject and end up having a career in a completely different area?1
The U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions hearing, chaired by Senator Tom Harkin, concluded that the training students received at some for-profit institutions was so inadequate that the students were not able to secure employment at a high enough pay grade to allow them to cover their loans for this (seemingly) poor quality education.2
Higher education must develop the means to assess the impact that course work and programs have had on developing students’ skill levels and intellect. For the academic year 2010–2011, the Chicago Area Faculty Development Network (CAFDN) chose its topic, “teaching our changing college student populations,” and identified the following areas:
- Different student populations
- Traditional age (immediately out of high school) and transfer students who have more sense of direction
- Students who have returned after 10–15 years and are savvy in business and are adjusting to being a student
- Veterans and those in active service
- Students who are only on campus one day a week and are facing challenges in enjoying campus life, learning communities, and meeting with faculty
- Parents bringing children older than daycare age with them to campus
- Underprepared students and how to keep them motivated
- What constitutes college readiness?
- Are there big differences in populations between community colleges and four-year institutions, especially with student support?
- What are the challenges?
- Shifting cultural references
- Technological diversity (not on computer as much as iPod, iPad, or smart phone)
- How to use social media and if it should be infused in the curriculum3
- Identifying different student populations and the challenges of serving them
There are different student populations. Traditional (students who enter college immediately after high school) versus nontraditional can no longer be used to describe today’s student populations. According to Clohan,4 nontraditional students are the majority of the student population in higher education. More than 60% of students enrolled are now over 25, and more than 60% are now working full-time while pursuing their education. We should start using a new term to describe these students.
Several Chicago area colleges and universities have identified very nontraditional (students who do not enroll directly from high school) populations that include first-generation students who have family members who never attended college; adult learners who have returned to school after many years, have savvy in business or other fields, and are making adjustments to being a student; armed services veterans and current members of the armed services (National Guard, etc.); autistic students; English language learners; students who commute to campus; students in hybrid courses (meet face-to-face minimally during the term with the majority of their course work completed online); and online learners.
In today’s workplace, lifelong learning has become a fact of life. As the American economy evolves to become more knowledge based, a growing number of its citizens are turning to college in order to expand their skills, earning potential, and career paths. A third of these students are 25 years of age or older, a group that possesses a distinct set of goals, views, and needs.5
Traditional age (out of high school) and transfer students (coming from community colleges into four-year institutions) have more of a sense of direction and what being a student means. These students may also be more tech savvy through use of various technology tools in high school or community colleges.
Students who are returning after 10–15 years bring their experience and business savvy and are generally able to more easily see how their experience and learning complement each other. They may also be reentering college at different points in their careers. These students relate their real-world experiences to each other and to those who do not have that level of experience. Faculty must be prepared to provide the proper learning environment for this diverse population. To what extent do we encourage student input in developing curriculum to better reflect their career goals and job-related needs? To better serve these learners, who are coming to class after a day of work, it is important to extend student service hours, such as financial advising, faculty office hours, library and study spaces, lounge areas, and child care for parents who need to bring children with them to campus. This would also pertain to commuter students who may only be on campus one day per week. Veterans and those in active service may have many adjustments to face, including psychological and social stressors. Active military personnel may have the additional stress of not knowing when in their studies they may be called to duty or back for another tour of duty. We must also look at students who have been passed through the K–12 system who are not ready for the responsibilities and rigor of higher education.
What Are the Challenges?
Can all institutions meet this wide variety of needs? Should they specialize in recruiting students they can serve? Institutions of higher education must be flexible, understanding, and responsive to the diverse population that they serve. Financial aid in these economic times is an important element to all students. Employer participation in the financing of the education of their employees is key if they wish to have a workforce that can compete in the global economy.
Outmoded policies and practices of higher education institutions must be retooled to provide the necessary framework for today’s diverse student populations. Institutions that have articulation agreements must evaluate those agreements to see that they are flexible enough to assist transfer students in reaching their academic and learning goals. The traditional classroom may no longer be the best way to deliver courses or degree programs. Hybrid and online learning with the appropriate technology tools can enable students to study from their homes on their own time or while commuting from work to school. It is important that faculty understand the diversity of their classrooms and address it. Faculty development must include making it a priority to convince seasoned faculty to make changes in the way they approach students. Many institutions offer a college readiness course or freshman and new student seminars to help students become more acclimated to college culture and to understand the responsibilities of both students and faculty members. Some institutions also offer a college readiness course for faculty that helps them to understand their students and enables faculty to talk about how students have changed from 5 to 6 years ago and how they have had to change their classes. This faculty development must be a priority for systemic reasons. How to use social media and how to infuse it into the curriculum addresses the technological diversity of students who may not be on a computer as much as they are on an iPod, iPad, and smart phone.
Online and hybrid courses provide learning environments that offer options to the various student populations, using a variety of learning management systems and technology tools. These options may not fit all the populations as technology may be a psychological stressor for some groups of the diverse student populations as well as faculty. Institutions must utilize resources such as faculty developers to prepare faculty to adjust to different methods of teaching and to enable students to be a part of the learning process, including understanding what constitutes an educational community. Faculty developers will encourage faculty to identify opportunities for improvement and encourage faculty to make decisions regarding necessary changes in their educational performance and practice. According to Seurkamp,6 the responsibility to ensure that higher education is accessible and that success is attainable falls on the shoulders of every college and university today. The core curriculum of general education (history, literature, sociology, science, and the arts) may need to include course work that includes attributes that employers deem necessary, such as writing, speaking, researching, reasoning, and thinking. Mark Roche explains that
We can do a much better job of college admissions, as well as instruction and assessment, if we think about student abilities in a broader way than we have—in particular, by valuing, assessing, and teaching for analytical, creative, practical, and wisdom-based skills.7
Learner support is key to success based on the differences identified with today’s learner. The term “learner support” is used very broadly:
And this is understood here to include, not only academic support, but also the wider range of difficulties faced by students, and the pastoral care offered by institutions, because these wider difficulties impact directly upon academic performance and student retention or noncompletion. Similarly, our concern with staff development is focused on how this impacts upon students … greater diversity of entry routes into HE may mean a student body with a greater diversity of academic histories and consequently, a greater diversity of academic strengths and weaknesses.8
Faculty must establish partnerships or agreements with instructional designers for electronically delivered courses; plan, direct, implement, and evaluate instructional technology programs; coordinate activities with a variety of staff and departments; create multimedia programs; foster computer-based classroom instruction; and investigate software for use in all programs if today’s student populations are to be successful.
Any institution of higher learning must look for the following qualities in those who participate in its courses or programs. Michael J. Sukowski, based on the qualities of students he has worked with who have been successful, has identified these qualities as passion, thinking strategically, acting decisively, working collaboratively, and being performance driven. Whether management, faculty developer, or instructor, each person works with learners, encourages them to advance and develop professionally, and provides the learners an opportunity to reflect on their own personal growth, development, and learning.