Online School for Adults

You can run, but you can’t hide—in online.

If you have never taken an online course, or have free floating anxiety about logging into a classroom, please read on. Some of the potential students I meet in information sessions, graduate school fairs, or speak with on the phone, have a huge block of fear when it comes to learning this way. At Granite State College (GSC), we offer two master’s degree programs: an M.S. in Leadership and M.S. in Project Management. We do offer a few graduate courses in Concord, Portsmouth, and Manchester - however, the majority of the Master of Science classes are often online.

Laura was an adult Granite State College student for several years, furiously working towards completing her baccalaureate degree while taking part time classes. She was a professional HR director, and GSC helped her get to where she wanted to be. She loved taking courses at GSC, and had taken them in all delivery methods - hybrid, weekend, evening, and online courses. I was delighted to meet Laura at a conference recently - her enthusiasm for lifelong learning was infectious. I thought she would be a great master's candidate for either the Project Management or Leadership program.

As she was nearing the end of her undergraduate career, the last course she needed to complete was Interpersonal Communication. It was a course offered online and she had every intention of taking it, even with its ironic online delivery. While telling me her story, I flashed back to my undergraduate days. I took Interpersonal Communication in a decade when online learning was not available. I quickly assumed it could only be a classroom course, learning the art and science of successful communication. I paused in my thoughts and was preparing for the worst. How could a college create this online? I prepared for a sympathetic reply.

As she continued her enthusiasm for (what I thought) was a pedagogical mish mash of course delivery gone wrong, I started to listen closer. Her family and friends thought she was making an error in judgment.  "Don’t do it," they said. "You’re crazy." She took the course successfully and told me it was the best course she ever took. The posts were lively, deep, and thoughtful. She made friends with a number of people in the virtual classroom. “You can’t hide in an online learning platform. Students who are shy in a classroom can’t hide in online learning. You can also think about your posts, edit, and get your point across clearly.” Her sales pitch was right on queue. And, I know she is correct.

This brief encounter with Laura gives me more fuel and intelligence for the GSC graduate programs. I have chatted with potential students who feel the same way Laura’s friends and family did. The anxiety about getting a graduate degree online can be eradicated when you listen to Laura's story. She preferred her online courses. It was her time. She’d get up at 5:00 a.m. and start her coursework before the day got away from her. Laura is now applying to Master of Science in Leadership, and is very excited about the incredibly flexible, affordable, and relevant program. “It’s time to do it. And, I love that I can take it online.”

 

Here it is Thursday morning and a new day.  My mind seems to be thinking about life, what mine is like and how blessed I truly am. Life is short which is why there is no time like the present.  The present to make some choices for your future.  If you have been thinking about going to school and getting your education, do it. Do it now and don't wait another day.  Pick up the phone and call Granite State College. It is the kind of college that will work with you, guide you to a curriculum that works with your busy life.  It worked for mine and it can work for you also.  I even took my last two years of school through online classes for adults. Yes, Granite State College has these classes. It worked for me, it can work for you too.  Life is short, don't waste another day!! 

I was horrified to read that an annual Easter egg hunt in Colorado Springs has been canceled this year.  Was it because the kiddies misbehaved?  Was there some egg-throwing that got out of hand?  Well, not exactly.  Apparently, it's the parents whose behavior was out of hand.  

"Too many parents determined to see their children get an egg jumped a rope marking the boundaries of the children-only hunt at Bancroft Park last year. The hunt was over in seconds, to the consternation of eggless tots and the rules-abiding parents.

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/world/53794462-68/parents-hunt-egg-easter.html.csp

Recently, the news has been filled with stories of "helicopter parents" - those parents who hover above their children and are a tad, shall we say, "overinvolved" in their kids' lives.  Those are the parents who demand that teachers recognize how special their child is.  (Aren't all children special?)  They argue with teachers if their child doesn't get the high grade they'd hoped for and make such a habit of speaking for their children that their children may get tongue-tied when expected to speak for themselves.  

Actually, the children sometimes become so unable to do anything for themselves that Mommy or Daddy may end up doing the homework, the science project, and even write college papers! Happily,  I haven't seen that at Granite State College, but I know it happens.

What I do wish is that these clueless parents would take a course in Child Psychology.  (We have them at Granite State College - both in the classroom and online...that's my plug for our wonderful college.)  Often, at the end of that course, my students say they wish their parents had had a course like that, and they might have been raised differently!  Many of our students are adult learners and people who have returned to school for a college degree.  But we do have a philosophy that the ideal target audience is a "lifelong learner."  So that should include everyone!

It's easy to express dismay over how "different things are now."  One thing that does give some strength to that argument is that parents are having fewer children than ever before.  Might that make a difference in how involved parents are?  Parents may have more time to be involved in their childrens' lives.  But there's another factor to consider:  Both parents are likely to be working now, so that cuts down on how much time both parents have to devote to "helicoptering" their children's lives.

These are the interesting kinds of things you can learn in a course on Child Growth and Development or Human Development at Granite State College.

We dream of our perfect career that we will land once we finish your degree and maybe we should be thinking about the type of degree we get, employable degrees. Employable, what a concept to think about what will get us a job instead of following our passions for fields we have dreamed about for years.  But the truth is, you go to school to get a good job, make a good salary, so you can get by and be independent; a well adjusted citizen in the community.

My daughter has a degree that is really in one of the most unemployable fields. She recognizes that and is going to go back to school.  School/knowledge are the key to getting employed and also experience.  When you are young, you really don't have the experiences to go back too, you just have your degree. But, when you are an older learner, a more mature learner, you have so much experience and so much knowledge of life. You go to classes eager to learn and to express yourself.

If you are close in proximity to Granite State College, well go there. If you are in another state, it is all possible too. Granite State College has on-line classes for adults.  I have done both. I lived in Merrimack for a short time and that is when I was introduced to the college. Then, I was relocated and got very familiar with on-line learning. I actually got my Associates Degree in General Studies on-line and received my BS in Mgmt on-line.

Now is the time...just do it!!
 

I never EVER liked school. EVER. Period.

I hated that these grownups would stand in front of me and tell me to memorize this information, and if I spelled a word wrong I had to write it out ten times.  How is this learning? It wasn’t. It was memorization at its finest, just using enough of my brain power to remember the information to get me through the exams and then I was free to forget everything I “learned”.  Why should I have learned it anyway? It did not apply to me. How is it that any time in my adult life would I need to know what year Spain traveled to the new world and enslaved the natives? It had nothing to do with anything. It related to me in no way and it didn’t apply to anything else I was learning at the time, so why did I need to know this useless information?

I started really thinking about this recently because of the way I am actually learning now, in my online classes for college.

All of my adult college classes, no matter what the information, actually pertain to me! Can you believe that? In human bio right now, I am learning about my body. More than just how I breathe and my organs and such, but how everything comes together to help me survive day-to-day, mostly without me ever needing to think about it. When was the last time you actually had to think and make a conscious effort to make your heart beat or to breathe in and out? You don’t have to do those because some of your body’s muscles and organs are involuntary. Without that, we wouldn’t be able to sleep or carry on a conversation without thinking about doing everything our body already does for us.

There is also some other information I found fascinating. For example, sweating. Did you know that you can get injections in your face and body to eliminate sweating? Did you also know that sweating is not only your body’s way of cooling you down, but also a way to get toxins out of your body? Could you imagine the nasty gross things that could build up in your body if there were no ways to release it? It’s absolutely fascinating all that I am learning in this class. It makes me want to take better care of myself, and to know how to do that.

I am truly lucky to be a part of Granite State College, a college where you don’t go to memorize things, but a place where you actually go to gain knowledge and become a better person!

I was sitting at the coffee shop this morning, listening to the news on TV and heard that college educations are not worth getting.  It aggravated me so much as I disagree.  Yes, maybe our economy is rough, there are lots of people who get degrees and can't get jobs. But, if you don't have a degree, do you have the knowledge or credentials to get a job if one were to come up? No.  Getting an adult education degree is so valuable, I don't care what the economy is like. It grows your mind, your soul, your personality and knowledge is power. It always has been and always will be.

Accelerated degrees are so available at Granite State College. With weekend intensive classes as well as online classes for adults, college is possible for anyone. I hope the young adults don't stop dreaming and stop learning. I hope that people who are ready for a change in life job choice, grasp the concept of going back to school.  Going back to school for me was the best decision I ever made and I will always be in the learning mode. 

Learning online at Granite State College is practical and functional for many adult learners taking adult college courses.  It lends itself well to how adult learners learn best, under the unique conditions they often find themselves.  Online learning is appealing from a practical lifestyle perspective but also from a theoretical and neuro-scientific perspective.   Here are the top ten reasons to take online classes for college:

Easy to get started - You can get started learning online with a computer and Internet access.   Computers are becoming more powerful, less expensive and more user-friendly.  Internet service is widely available in many places.  If owning your own computer or accessing the Internet from home is a problem, many public libraries offer free computer and Internet access.  Be sure to check your school’s technical requirements for your computer before taking an online class. 

Economical - No travel costs, no commuting, and no dormitory fees - just tuition and occasionally materials fees.

Accessible – As long as you have an Internet connection, you can access your online course.  This is particularly appealing to parents of young children or students who travel often for their work.

Flexible –Unable to make a 9:00 AM Economics lecture on a college campus?  Online classes are available 24 hours a day.  You can learn online from your own home at a time that is convenient for you. 

Effective – When you take online classes for adults, you can expect to learn important career building skills and abilities equal to, or better than, a traditional classroom setting.  According to a 2010 evaluation of online learning conducted by the U.S. Department of Education, “Students in online conditions performed modestly better, on average, than those learning the same material through traditional face-to-face instruction.” 

It gets better - Thanks to advances in technology, learning online continues to improve at an unprecedented rate.  New technologies facilitate active engagement that allow adult learners to apply, integrate, implement, differentiate, and formulate new learning into experience generating activities.   Technological advances also enhance learner connectedness, interaction and mutual support.  Immersive learning environments and serious games are no longer distant concepts but rapidly becoming more common in online learning. 

Challenging – Though there are deadlines and due dates, there are no class meeting times (although some online classes may require mandatory synchronous session), you are constantly working on your own resourcefulness and initiative to complete the coursework. 

Time for Reflection – Unlike a face-to-face class where immediate responses are often required in class discussions, online discussion boards allow time for thoughtful reflection and critical thinking when interacting and responding on an online discussion board.   This reflection time can facilitate metacognition – thinking about one’s own thinking or “the ability to monitor one’s current level of understanding and decide when it is not adequate” (How People Learn, 2000).   

Your experience counts – Online learning facilitates the connection to past experience (cognitive activation) critical to the adult learning process.  Raymond Wlodkowski author of “Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn” explains it this way; “adults have had more time and seen the benefits and outcomes of a greater variety of experiences.  Neurologically, their brains are more developed and capable of judging, planning, and making decisions about their experiences in a manner that is more integrated, stable, reflective, and future oriented.”  Online learning interactive activities such as discussion boards, blogs and journals provide the opportunities to employ an adult’s “rich mosaic of experience” at deeper levels of learning as part of the learning experience. 

Meaningful - You determine the meaning of the learning.  “Most experts who have studied or participated in online learning communities share an approach to adult learners described as ‘constructivism.’ It is based on the premise that knowledge is constructed by adult learners as they filter new information through the prism of their own experience. It is quite different from the more traditional ‘objectivist’ idea of knowledge as a preexisting reality that teachers simply transmit by means of effective communication, and reinforce through practice and repetition. Constructivists expect adult learners to be active, reflective, and creative: managing their own learning process and often collaborating with each other to test new ideas and information by applying them to real problems and circumstances. Therefore, constructivists often describe their approach as student-centered rather than teacher-centered. Instructors facilitate learners’ progress rather than operating primarily as podium-based sages.” – Dr. Burgess Smith, Granite State College. 

Like any other endeavor, learning online is what you make of it.  Organization, discipline and hard work are all successful components to a positive online learning experience.    As Judy Willis, MD, M.Ed. puts it: “The person who does the work LEARNS.”

Citations

Means, B, Toyama, Y, Murphy, R, Bakia, M, & Jones, K. (2010). Evaluation of Evidence-based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies .  U.S. Department of Education, Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development Policy and Program Studies Service.

How People Learn. (2000). Washington, D.C.  National Research Council.

Wlodkowski , R. (2008). Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Smith, B. (2011, February). How We Learn Online [Web log message]. Retrieved from https://blackboard.granite.edu/