Adult Education in Practice by Group 5 by Sherry Boylan, Lanny Burnham, Rachael Robertson, Megan Tilford
Assignment 5: Adult Education in Practice
Group 5: Sherry Boylan, Lanny Burnham, Rachael Robertson, Megan Tilford
Lanny Burnham
For my interview, I spoke with Dr. Scott Rahschulte, Professor of Life and Physical Sciences at Ivy Tech Community College in Lawrenceburg, IN. His answers to our interview questions follow below.
Can you tell me the different types of adult education provided in the organization or in the community?
Ivy Tech Community College in Lawrenceburg offers a selection of over 70 programs, designed to appeal to every student’s learning style. With various degrees, certifications, and courses making up their programs, each student can choose the format most aligned with their distinct needs, whether in-person, online, or a blended combination of both. (Programs - Ivy Tech Community College, n.d.)
Dr. Rahschulte described the delivery method for his Earth Science, Physical Science, Anatomy, and Physiology programs as using the blended modality, combining face-to-face interactive lab, and lecture sessions with lecture-only meetings being held virtually.
Who provided them? For what purposes?
Dr. Raschulte said he developed the curriculum for the courses in his program. He designed it specifically to tailor it to the needs of the learners.
What kind of activities are provided in these different types of adult education? Can you give me some examples?
According to Dr. Raschulte, Ivy Tech’s Life and Physical Science programs offer a wide variety of activities to engage learners. This includes service-learning projects for real-world applications; expert-delivered lectures; interactive, hand-on labs; and project presentations for knowledge sharing.
He went on to describe how specialized activities, such as dissections for life science labs, and dedicated labs (electricity, light, and sound) provide additional opportunities for unique learner goals to be met.
How do adult education programs collaborate with other organizations to offer adult education activities to the local citizens or their employees?
According to Dr. Raschulte, Ivy Tech Community College’s Earth and Physical Sciences program has collaborated with the National Parks Service, local city parks, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to create unique learner experiences. He commented how these collaborations resulted in valuable service-learning projects, such as trail signage along the Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail, the development of Junior Ranger programs, and additional program creation initiatives.
What are the challenges in providing adult education to the local people or employees?
Dr. Raschulte mentioned financial considerations are a significant challenge for both the adult education provider and the learners. Programs face challenges obtaining sufficient funding for programs while learners may face financial issues which can interrupt their participation. He also mentioned prior education background, lack of a family support system or a familial structure, and transportation issues may pose additional interference with a learner’s educational goals.
Main Themes/Ideas:
The main themes of this interview include the importance of diverse offerings in adult education, delivered in various formats that cater to individual learning styles, and schedules. Purposeful design and engaging activities are crucial for encouraging knowledge application and sharing. Collaboration with community organizations provides unique learning experiences for students.
Challenges identified in this interview included financial for both providers and learners, possible lack of support systems, transportation issues and education gaps.
Rachael Robertson
Candy Dodd is the Associate Program Director for the Entrepreneurial Leadership Institute (ELI) at Ball State University. While she works for Ball State University, the programs that she leads reach out into the Muncie Community in several ways. The following are her responses to the interview questions:
Can you tell me the different types of adult education provided in the organization or in the community? Who provided them? For what purposes
“There is a variety of adult education programming within Ball State University and the Muncie community. While I do not have extensive knowledge outside of the Entrepreneurial Leadership Institute, I do know the following:
Muncie Area Career Center offers programming that provides High School Equivalency exam (formerly GED), improve English skills (speaking, reading, writing) employment certification required for some industries. (Adult Education - Muncie Area Career Center, n.d.)
Shafer Leadership Academy provides a variety of programming/workshops around leadership and team building. Ball State University’s division of Lifetime Learning provides a variety of non-credit courses and credentials. Our institute, ELI, provides programming around innovation, creativity, problem-solving, leadership and self-discovery.”
What kind of activities are provided in these different types of adult education? Can you give me some examples?
“I run a program called Chic Innovate, a female professional development group for Ball State and local community women. This program includes workshops around: Creativity, Innovation, and Problem Solving, Leadership Development, Assessments and Team Building, Communication and Conflict, and Personal Mission and Pitching.”
How do adult education programs collaborate with other organizations to offer adult education activities to the local citizens or their employees?
“I provide opportunities for local organizations to utilize our space for programming. For example, the Non-Profit Support Network routinely hosts workshops around fundraising, board leadership and grant writing in our training rooms. ELI also collaborates with Greg Zirkle, from Lifetime Learning.”
What are the challenges in providing adult education to the local people or employees?
“The biggest challenge we (ELI) face, is that most organizations/individuals want ‘education’ or programming for free.”
Main Themes/Ideas:
Adult education opportunities are widely available in Muncie, Indiana through the Entrepreneurial Leadership Institute at Ball State University, (Community Programs | Entrepreneurial Leadership Institute, n.d.) and various organizations in the community. The main types of available adult education programs include high school equivalency, English language skills, professional development, and non-credit personal enrichment courses. Collaboration between organizations allows for resource sharing across providers.
The main challenge identified is the request for free or low-cost programs, which can drain funds and impact program sustainability.
Megan Tilford
I interviewed Brandie Campbell, a Family Consultant at Lifeline Youth and Family Services. Going into the interview I was aware of her position as a Family Consultant, but I learned that she had taken on another role as a Case Manager for Care Star.
“Lifeline is a faith-based organization that was created to bring hope to families and youth who have become involved with the legal systems through home-based services, court-ordered therapy, and preventative education. We help individuals and families rediscover solutions that will allow them to reclaim control, rebuild relationships, and restore hope.” (“About Us,” n.d.). At Lifeline Brandie provides families with different types of education, which includes parenting education, substance abuse education, pre-adoption services, and post-adoption services.
Brandie takes a different approach and provides different activities for each of the types of education. When focusing on parenting and substance abuse education, Brandie prefers an evidence-based curriculum. For parenting education, Brandie uses the curriculum 123 Magic or Positive Parenting. For substance abuse education, Brandie uses the curriculum Seeking Safety. These are both self led by the learner with support and encouragement from the educator. For pre-adoption and post-adoption, Brandie tends to use support groups or one-on-one support as teaching activities. The type of support and education provided is based on an initial needs assessment and reassessments throughout the program.
Lifeline Youth and Family Services utilizes a team approach and regularly collaborates with other organizations. They receive service referrals from the Indiana Department of Child Services (DCS) or county probation offices. The collaboration can include team members from DCS or probation, therapists, recovery coaches, schools, family members, friends, and community-based organizations.
There are many challenges when dealing with the client base. Brandie expressed challenges in parenting and substance abuse education that include lack of client motivation and support. She also said that there is a shortage of professionals, so clients are sometimes put on waitlists when they are reaching out for immediate help. For pre-adoption and post-adoption services, Brandie feels that she can provide education, but there is a lack of services and funding.
Care Star is a company that provides a variety of programs; however, Brandie works as a case manager with individuals that have disabilities that have been approved a Medicaid Waiver. She can educate her clients about the Americans with Disabilities Act, their rights, and what services are available to them. Overall, it is her responsibility to educate and advocate for her clients. This is primarily done with one-on-one sessions and occasional team meetings with the client's support system.
Care Star can collaborate with other organizations. There are provider fairs that inform the community of available service providers. Case managers can also team up to bring more support and awareness to clients.
Brandie runs into challenges in this position as well. If the client is emancipated, they have the right to refuse services. A lot of clients have guardians, and some guardians are not always on board with the service. Brandie stated that most of her clients are adults and have their own request, however their guardians may not support this, and she must advocate for her client and educate the guardian.
Common Themes:
As discussed in our reading by Kasworm et al. (2010), both programs Brandie presented follow the self-directed learning and free-choice learning paths explained in “Adult Education in Cultural Institutions.” This learner-driven educational model, defined by self-paced, voluntary learning based on the needs and interest of individual learners, is a common theme for both programs.
Lasting Change:
Across both organizations, a major challenge identified was scarcity of resources in communities. This issue, as explored in “Developing Community Expectations: The Critical Role of Adult Educators (Deggs & Miller, 2011), impacts both the programs and the communities they serve.
Implications:
These interviews demonstrate a team-based approach to client services among organizations. Lifeline and Care Star frequently partner with other community resources to provide improved, timely client education appropriate to their learner’s needs. This collaborative approach should be considered by other organizations to address potential participation reluctance.
Participation in events like provider fairs, community fairs and learning festivals provide additional education opportunities for the community. This type of interaction is vital to the program’s success since the community may not otherwise have the chance to learn about these organizations or their programs.
Conclusions and Discussions:
A common theme across all interviews was the importance of diverse course offerings, pointing out the range of available programs to fit a variety of needs. These offerings include everything from professional development to a high school equivalency diploma to learning about self-care resources. Further enhancing the variety of availability is the flexibility in delivery methods, which caters to individual learning styles and schedules, allowing for optimal learning experiences.
The programs discussed in these interviews seem to mostly follow learner-driven, self-directed, free-choice models, encouraging learners to share knowledge and engage in learner activities. They seem to all have a good connection to the community, with collaborations which allow for sharing resources and expertise, while providing unique learning experiences.
This project highlighted shared challenges faced by adult education programs, mostly related to limited resources. Financial struggles can apply to both providers and learners, which can limit educational accessibility. High demand for free or low-cost programs can impact long-term program sustainability due to funding issues. Limited support systems and transportation issues can cause additional barriers for learners. Community resource scarcity negatively impacts both programs and the communities they serve.
The main thing we learned from this project is that, for adult education programs to be successful, providers must create diverse and flexible course offerings. This approach caters to the needs and schedules of adult learners, increasing the likelihood of program completion. For most learners, the topic needs to be interesting to keep their focus, so diversity in course offerings is an effective way to keep learners engaged in the learning experience.
One example of course flexibility highlighted in these interviews is how different settings can foster effective educational experiences. Building on the video “Adult Learning Environments'' (Bigtubevideo5, 2008), our project shows various approaches, from more formal, structured programs at Ivy Tech to informal instruction like the workshops, support groups, coaching, or community involvements Chic Innovated, Lifeline Youth and Family Services, and Care Star utilize. Even this lesson, presented non-formally in a conversational manner, represents adult education. It is interesting to think about how learning can happen anywhere at any time.
Finally, this project exhibits the critical role of collaboration with communities in adult education programs. By taking advantage of shared resources and fostering diverse, unique learning experiences, community partnerships can significantly contribute to program success. Before this project, we did not consider the significance of community collaborations in adult education programs. However, collaboration and community buy-in are essential to adult education success.
Implications:
All five programs examined in the project do an excellent job of designing programs that will appeal to diverse learners by offering assorted options for robust learning experiences and by providing flexible delivery methods so learners can select options that best fit their needs. Where appropriate for the content, many of these programs also offer courses that follow learner-driven, self-direct and free-choice models, thereby further engaging students.
Also, the collaboration and inclusion of the community with these programs enhances the content provided for their learners and makes for a more conducive learning environment for students of all backgrounds to enjoy. Their collaboration also provides additional support for learners and the programs themselves.
Meeting educational goals is dependent on addressing challenges faced by both students and programs, which many interviewees discussed. Students may experience financial issues, limited transportation options, or inadequate support systems. Programs struggle with resource shortages and funding constraints. Addressing these problems is important for both student and program success.
The programs in this project should continue offering a variety of learning options, provided in flexible learning settings, and continue creating engaging content to attract diverse learners and to ensure learners remain committed to their programs.
They also need to maintain collaboration with community partners to continue offering unique learning opportunities and to help create a supportive environment. Continued strong program relationships with the community may also produce opportunities for students to secure scholarships or for program funding from community members, which could help address assisting learners who may otherwise not be able to afford to attend.
Finally, these programs should collaborate with local public transportation departments to investigate solutions to student’s transportation issues. Strong ties with the community will ensure continued success for both programs and the community they serve.
Table 1. Summary of Adult Education in Practice
References
About Us. (n.d.). Lifeline. Retrieved February 24, 2024, from https://lifelineyouth.org/about-us/
Adult Education—Muncie Area Career Center. (n.d.). Retrieved February 29, 2024, from https://macc.muncie.k12.in.us/departments/adult-education
Bigtubevideo5 (Director). (2008, January 8). Adult Learning Environments 2007. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bKLCA9pT8A
Community Programs | Entrepreneurial Leadership Institute. (n.d.). Retrieved February 29, 2024, from https://www.bsu.edu/academics/centersandinstitutes/entrepreneurial-leadership/programs-services/community
Deggs, D., & Miller, M. (2011). Developing Community Expectations: The Critical Role of Adult Educators. Adult Learning, 22(3), 25–30. https://proxy.bsu.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=tfh&AN=66613095&site=ehost-live&scope=site
Kasworm, C. E., Rose, A. D., & Ross-Gordon, J. M. (2010). Handbook of adult and continuing education. In Handbook of adult and continuing education (2010 ed.). SAGE., (p.31)
Programs—Ivy Tech Community College. (n.d.). Retrieved February 25, 2024, from https://www.ivytech.edu/programs/
Hi all. Great project! I loved seeing the career diversity in the people you all interviewed; I think it gave a great, well-rounded idea of the different types of education that we have learned. I found it interesting that many of the issues and themes I talked about in my project were brought up in yours. For example, I also talked about connections with the community and the lack of funding in these organizations and opportunities. I agree that more support in these areas would not only benefit the adult learner, but the organizations as well, so they can focus on supporting and teaching their students. Without the worry of how someone will pay for something, a lot of stress is taken off and therefore people can be more productive and at ease with their homework, workshops, learning, etc. Great work everyone!
ReplyDeleteHi all, great job! I'll echo Cassidy here and mention that I really enjoyed reading through your interviews and seeing the variety of responses through the varying career fields. I think you hit it square on the nail when discussing how establishing strategic community partnerships and collaborating with them can aid in crafting programs that best fit the needs of the community and will likely have an increased reach and higher engagement with the community members.
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