Rethinking Research in English with Nontraditional Adult Students

Adult students of diverse experiences, disciplines, and identities can become valued contributors to faculty-directed research while also benefiting from the experience. However, national data show that older students participate in mentored research at one of the lowest rates among all groups tracked. This article forwards principles for facilitating nontraditional students’ involvement in collaborative research. These were developed during studies conducted about and with adult undergraduates at a historically Black university. Student researchers’ insights, adult learning theory, and the scholarship of undergraduate research and mentoring indicate interlacing benefits that students, faculty, and English studies may gain from developing such research partnerships.

How Do International Students Study for Their University Degree Programme Using Technologically-Assisted Tools and Platforms?

Due to the current education trend, many students, including traditional-age, non-traditional, returning, evening, and adult students, move from traditional on-campus study to distance learning and online education. The current COVID-19 pandemic offers opportunities for these colleges and universities to expand their channel to international students who cannot come on-campus due to the recommendation of social distancing and the self-quarantine policy. However, it is important to capture the students' comments and opinions, particularly international students who are looking for the living experience in an overseas country. With the tools of qualitative inductive survey and interview sessions, the researcher collected 63 valid data from the Chinese international students. This study provided the blueprint for school leadership, department heads, policymakers, faculty members, and students who are interested in reforming the current curriculum and instruction.

External Factors Explaining Students’ Persistence in Online Courses in Higher Education: A Study Among Two French-Speaking Universities in Canada

The aim of this study was to verify if external factors influence persistence in online courses in higher education. These external factors, borrowed from Kember’s (1995) model, included some students’ characteristics; cost benefits; social integration of adult students (enrolment encouragement, study encouragement, and family support); and external attribution (insufficient time, events hindering study, and distractions). Data were collected among a sample of 835 students from two Canadian French-Speaking Universities (n1 = 468 from University One and n2 = 367 from University Two) using an online questionnaire. The questionnaire included items borrowed from The Distance Education Student Progress (DESP) inventory (Kember et al., 1992). The multiple linear hierarchical regression analysis revealed that students’ characteristics and some of the external factors had an effect on students’ persistence in online courses and that the most important factor in predicting students’ persistence is cost benefits. These analyses were also conducted by university, gender, and age groups. Except for cost benefits, the results indicated different patterns of strength and significant relationships between groups.

Five Attempts to Serve Adult Education in University Library

According to the characteristics of adult higher education, this paper expounds the necessity of cultivating the information quality of adult students. This paper gives full play to the functions of university library, and combined with practical measures, puts forward some effective ways for university library to implement adult education service.

Use of Facebook as a pedagogical tool for university education

This study aimed to analyze Facebook's use as a pedagogical tool for teaching didactics for graduate students in Dentistry. Seventy-two adult students participated in this study. These students attended theoretical classes, developed practical activities by Facebook, and evaluated the course through a questionnaire. Tasks were analyzed concerning the following criteria: time to respond to assignments and whether they have been finished or not. Additionally, post type and students' reactions to posts were also evaluated. Forty-three (59.8%) students have considered Facebook as a good pedagogical resource. Only 5 (22%) students answered that they had some difficulty in responding to the assignments of the course through Facebook. Most students completed their tasks through Facebook. However, in general, most students only fulfilled the assignments close to the deadline. The main reactions of the students were likes and comments. Despite its limitations, Facebook seems to be a great pedagogical resource to be inserted in post-graduate education. In addition, the students still show little participation even being in the virtual environment of Facebook.

Supporting Educational Needs of Older Adult Learners: Strategies for Virtual Transitioning and Student Engagement

The pandemic has revealed a multitude of challenges disproportionately impacting older adults, including older adult learners. Institutions of higher education are uniquely positioned to respond to various challenges using the guiding framework of the Age-Friendly University global initiative. This presentation highlights how preexisting university student support practices and services were adapted to provide older adult learners with guidance for navigating their educational needs during the pandemic. Specifically, it expands on strategies utilized by Adult Learner Programs and Services to effectively pivot to virtual services to support the advising and programming needs of older adult learners. Survey data identifying areas of interest for virtual programming for older adult students will be explored. Recommendations will be discussed for promoting effective transitioning to virtual support systems, preserving student engagement and intergenerational learning, and advocating for aging to remain central to university diversity and inclusion initiatives.

Advancing Age Inclusivity in a Pandemic: Age-Friendly University (AFU) Campuses Take Action

The COVID-19 pandemic presented extraordinary challenges for professionals in the aging field across campuses and communities, calling for rethinking and redesigning how their work was structured, their programs were delivered, and their connections were sustained. The pandemic also made clear the value of being an age-friendly institution of higher education, especially as we experience historic changes in age demographics. This symposium features campus leaders representing institutional partners of the Age-Friendly University (AFU) global initiative (endorsed by GSA’s Academy for Gerontology in Higher Education) who will discuss how their age-friendly programs were adapted during the pandemic to continue to advance age inclusivity. These diverse responses exemplify the vast potential of age-friendly opportunities. June and Andreoletti (Central Connecticut State University) will discuss how the Scholars for Life! program supported the engagement of older learners in the neighboring community through the engagement of faculty. Elfenbein (University of North Georgia) will describe how learning experiences for older learners and intergenerational exchange were created beyond the classroom through the Personal Enrichment, Action and Knowledge (PEAK) program. Terhune (Northern Kentucky University) will describe how student support practices and services were adapted to provide working adult students with guidance for navigating their educational needs during the pandemic. Kheirbek (University of Maryland, Baltimore) will describe how age-friendly collaborations with the institution’s medical school leveraged intergenerational connections and technology to foster social connection for hospitalized older adults. Gautam and Melillo (UMass Lowell) discuss how a campus partnership with the Learning in Retirement Association (LIRA) adapted efforts around healthy aging.

Measuring College Student Attitudes Toward COVID-19 Vaccinations

This survey explores attitudes of 1,197 currently enrolled college students regarding their comfort taking a COVID-19 vaccine. Results suggest most college students are willing to take a COVID-19 vaccine if their institution requires it to return to campus in subsequent semesters. However, certain students of Color, students with disabilities, and adult students may be less willing to take a COVID-19 vaccine if it were required before or during an on-campus semester. Finally, many college students do not understand that COVID-19 vaccines will be free, possibly affecting student willingness to vaccinate and their perceptions of safely and affordably returning to campus. Implications for postsecondary policy and leadership are addressed.

Promoting ESL Students’ Critical Thinking Skills Through a Transitivity Analysis of Authentic Materials

Using authentic materials in the English as a second language (ESL) classroom can develop students’ critical thinking (CT) skills, expose them to more realistic English, and support their motivation. Carrying out text analyses of authentic materials in the ESL classroom can also help students become more critical in their approach to reading. Grounded in systemic functional linguistics (SFL) concepts, this paper puts forward a series of text analysis tasks, so ESL teachers can introduce their adult students to the concepts of transitivity and intentionality found in opposing newspaper articles dealing with conflict. Overall, these analyses show how the active voice can highlight the semantic value of intentionality via material processes, and how writers use strategies such as passivization and fronting of items in clauses to emphasize the responsibility for wrongdoing when reporting news. The analyses also show that context is important in determining degrees of intentionality, and intentionality can be attributed to the material processes of human actors portrayed as non-human actors. Understanding these concepts can help adult ESL students become better critical readers/thinkers. Utiliser des matériaux authentiques dans la classe d’anglais langue seconde (ALS) peut développer la pensée critique (PC) des étudiants et les exposer à un anglais plus réaliste et soutenir leur motivation. Effectuer des analyses de textes de matériaux authentiques dans la classe d’ALS peut aussi aider les étudiants à devenir plus critiques dans leur approche de la lecture. Enraciné dans les concepts de la linguistique systémique fonctionnelle (LSF), cet article présente une série d’exercices d’analyse de texte, de façon à ce que les enseignants d’ALS puissent présenter à leurs étudiants adultes les concepts de transitivité et d’intentionnalité qu’on retrouve dans des articles de presse contradictoires qui traitent du conflit. Dans l’ensemble, ces analyses montrent comment l’utilisation de la voix active peut mettre en lumière la valeur sémantique de l’intentionnalité par l’entremise de processus matériels, ainsi que la façon dont les écrivains utilisent des stratégies comme la passivisation et la mise en avant d’éléments dans les propositions pour accentuer la responsabilité d’actes répréhensibles quand ils font un reportage. Les analyses montrent également que le contexte est important pour déterminer les degrés d’intentionnalité et que celle-ci peut être attribuée aux processus matériels des acteurs humains dépeints comme des acteurs non-humains. Comprendre ces concepts aide les étudiants adultes d’ALS à devenir de meilleurs lecteurs ou penseurs critiques.