Program Name, Goal, and Objectives
The name of the proposed program is as follows: an Integrative Online Adult Learner Orientation Program at Parker Online Community College (POCC). The above name was selected as it reflects the essence of the program, the target audience, and the format of the assistance. The pivotal goal of the identified program is to help adult students with different backgrounds and experience to prepare for online education, focusing on the enhancement of their skills and the overall awareness of such an option.
The first program objective is to create settings that would be appropriate and accessible for all participants of the mentioned program. To offer adequate classes, one should prepare both group and individual assignments, discussions, and tutoring, thus promoting connection with others (Caffarella & Daffron, 2013). The second program objective may be formulated in the following manner: to ensure that at least 80 percent of applicants would be eligible for further education, it is essential to improve their writing and technology skills. More to the point, in order to address the challenge with time management, the program is to be available at any time within a particular learning period. This would allow adult students to be more flexible in combing their education, families, and jobs and achieving college-work-life balance.
Learning Objectives, Instructional Activities, and Measurement
The specific program learning objectives are associated with the outcomes learners would present after the program completion. First of all, they would receive new knowledge and skills in an online format from books, articles, and web sources gathered by the program coordinator. Second, they would learn how to use the acquired information in practice and what are the benefits of applying it. The increased ability to interact with others in group discussions and teamwork is the third learning objective. Furthermore, the acquaintance of technology necessary for online courses may be regarded as the fourth objective since it is critical for adult learning to know how to access the program and its materials to observe a full range of tasks. Ultimately, the fifth learning objective is to provide those students who encounter difficulties with time management with relevant information on how to overcome the above issue.
Instructional activities to be used to design the specified program are to consider such factors as characteristics of students who are to attend the program as well as their background and specific needs. Case studies and open discussions will be used to meet the first, second, and third learning objectives (see Table 1 and Table 2 in Appendices). Consistent with Delen, Liew, and Willson (2014), an interactive learning environment will be organized in the format of video presentations. To ensure that adult students are engaged and self-regulated, video-based explanations and assignments are to be developed as a supportive and interactive learning context.
The mentioned instructional activities would be measured by means of self-assessment group discussions, and individual conversations. Each of the mentioned measurement techniques allows understanding whether adult learning succeeded in his or her education or not. While self-assessment is useful to reflect on personal effectiveness, group discussion would reveal the ability of learners to evaluate each other’s performance and the level of their interaction effectiveness (Caffarella & Daffron, 2013). An individual conversation is necessary to provide the opportunity for closer communication between an adult learner and a program coordinator and a more detailed assessment with the consequent recommendations on what may be improved.
Information Learned About Designing Programs
Having completed this assignment, it became clear to me how to plan the preparation of online learning programs for adult learners. More precisely, I understood that the mentioned target audience has specific needs, expectations, and experience, the consideration of which is critical to design a relevant and accessible program. For instance, I learned about the possible program and learning objectives as well as how to align them within one program. At the same time, the goal is to be always taken into account while creating objectives for the target population. As for the name of the program, I included all the key components to make it informative and clear.
Reading about instructional activities, it was rather useful to learn about a range of available techniques that may be used by instructors. For example, online lectures, presentations, interactive tasks, video formats, etc. seem to be helpful to engage students in education. Paying attention to the fact the program methodology was developed for adult learners, it is important to promote their self-regulation. As stated by Delen et al. (2014), I received information regarding the effectiveness of video-based instructional activities that may largely affect adult students, especially their engagement and self-regulation. It should also be emphasized that this assignment was helpful to explore the existing measurement options such as questionnaires, surveys, open discussions, and so on. For the given program, I have selected the most appropriate evaluation means, focusing on specifics of learners to attend it. In general, this assignment helped me to create the objectives that are aimed at addressing students’ concerns such as time management, technology and writing skills, and interaction with others.
References
Caffarella, R. S., & Daffron, S. R. (2013). Planning programs for adult learners: A practical guide (3rd ed.). New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.
Delen, E., Liew, J., & Willson, V. (2014). Effects of interactivity and instructional scaffolding on learning: Self-regulation in online video-based environments. Computers & Education, 78(1), 312-320.
Appendices
Table 1. Instructional Activities/Techniques by Learning Outcomes.
Table 2. Ten Major Factors to Consider When Choosing Instructional Techniques.