MAE523 Module 3 Case: Challenges with Adult Online Learning (Essay Sample)

MAE523 - Module 3 – Case
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MAE523 - Module 3 – Case
Introduction
Globalization has made the world a smaller place, and now a person can interact with anyone who is in a completely different location. This phenomenon has been possible because of technological advancement, which is driven by the internet. The user base of the Internet has increased by leaps and bounds. The Internet now touches people’s lives in every possible way. Education and learning are no exception wherein there has been a surge of e-learning courses and online modules. This trend is of more significance for adult learners since they are not that comfortable in learning online or navigate through various online tools (Chaffin & Harlow, 2005). The various aspects of adult online learning characteristics and challenges people may face have been described in the following sections.
Reason for Adult Online Education
Adults before the age of the Internet were adept in using paper based methods of interaction, but with the evolution of technology there is an urgent need to change such habits. Family members and relatives now reside far apart from each other, which makes communication and interaction a challenge. However, through the Internet and various other technologies it is possible to communicate with close family members staying away or even interacting with distant relatives (Hashim, Tan, & Rashid, 2014). Moreover, every financial transaction has been digitalized nowadays, which makes it all the more important to understand the various nuances of using the Internet. As a result, for different daily needs a person must acquire the knowledge of handling the Internet.
Challenges of Adult Learning
Adult online learning is significantly different from any usual e-learning program because of the perception among their intended audience. When adults had gone through their education, there was no internet. Therefore, it is a complete paradigm shift for them to learn any subject online or be proficient in doing things online. Online learning modules need to be interactive and detailed in their way of explaining things. There should be more illustrations from real life examples and easily navigable course structure. Adults mostly resort to the Internet because of sensitive issues such as communicating with a son or a daughter staying away and managing their personal finance (Howland & Moore, 2002). As a result, care needs to be taken to properly communicate the results of any transaction, so that there is no sense of despondency.
Graphical Interface
There are certain points which should be remembered while designing the web page for an e-learning course for adults. The course page should not be cluttered with content or hyperlinks, as in case of any page which tries to lure casual browsers. Any educational website should have sections clearly mentioned with buttons or arrows for previous and next. The option to bookmark the stage where a person left off in an online course is extremely essential for adults, since they may not be able to devote time at one go (Xiao, 2012). Sometimes it is taken for granted that people will know about navigation, but for adult learners clear instructions are needed to impro...