Adult Learners Want More Than Flexibility

Competency-based education offers students an alternative to traditional college courses, allowing them to advance by demonstrating mastery of specific skills and knowledge rather than spending a set amount of time in a classroom.

The model can be particularly appealing to adult learners, because they can progress at a flexible pace and receive credit for knowledge they already possess. But while flexibility has long been central to competency-based education, new research suggests adult learners don’t necessarily want to be left entirely to their own devices.

A national survey of 600 prospective undergraduate and graduate students ages 20 to 59 who planned to enroll or return to school within the next two years found that many want flexibility paired with deadlines, instructor interaction and other structures. The survey was conducted in March and April by MGT and commissioned by DeVry University.

Among prospective graduate students, 86 percent said they could manage their time without strict deadlines, yet 49 percent also said they need deadlines to stay on track and 58 percent preferred structured, instructor-led weekly classes. Meanwhile, 59 percent of prospective undergraduates and 66 percent of graduate prospects preferred messaging from their institutions emphasizing a supported rather than completely self-guided experience.

At the same time, the findings suggest that the availability of CBE could influence some prospective students’ decisions about whether to enroll at all. Some 31 percent of undergraduate prospects and 40 percent of graduate prospects said they would enroll only if a competency-based option were available.

Elise Awwad, president of DeVry University, said the findings highlight a tension between the flexibility prospective students value and the structure they believe they need to succeed.

“The research was eye-opening on the support side, but not eye-opening on the flexibility side,” Awwad said. “It’s not an or, it’s an and. Flexibility matters, but so does having someone there to catch me if I need them.”

Reaching adult learners: The survey also found particularly strong interest in competency-based education among full-time workers and older prospective students.

Some 71 percent of full-time workers rated CBE as “very appealing,” compared with 58 percent of part-time workers. Interest was particularly high among older prospects, including 79 percent of those ages 46 to 50 and 88 percent of those ages 51 to 55.

In addition, 63 percent of prospects aged 50 and older said they would be more likely to pursue a degree if their desired program were offered in a CBE format.

Awwad said the interest in CBE among full-time workers isn’t particularly surprising, given that many are returning to higher education with a specific career goal in mind.

“They’re already in a career,” she said. “They want to either upskill, career change or career advance.”

Parents also expressed greater interest in CBE; about 76 percent rated the model “very appealing,” compared with 62 percent of nonparents. Some 94 percent of parents said work-study flexibility influences their enrollment decisions, compared with 83 percent of nonparents.

“It’s a full-time job to raise a family on top of having a full-time job,” Awwad said. “Traditional models need to understand the differences in demographics and the differences in types of learners that are out there.”

“Competency-based education solves one piece of that puzzle, but the care and the support and all of those things that these types of learners need on the back end are still very important,” she added.

Flexibility with structure: The findings reinforce some established ideas about what adult learners value, including flexibility, career relevance and recognition of prior learning. But they also point to a more complicated picture of flexibility, suggesting that prospective students may want greater control over their education without sacrificing structure and support.

Awwad said that balance is particularly important as DeVry expands its own competency-based offerings.

“What we’ve learned is that you have to keep learners engaged, you have to have a proactive care model, and I’d also say that success in the classroom is success out of the classroom,” Awwad said. That includes embedding experiential learning opportunities into the curriculum and drawing on employer feedback about graduates to inform what students learn, she said.

Awwad said DeVry will look at student persistence and course-to-course retention, particularly during students’ first year, as indicators of whether its CBE offerings are working. Completion will also be important, she said, pointing to the rise of massive open online courses as a cautionary example of what can happen when access and flexibility aren’t accompanied by enough structure.

“There was an assumption that if you remove barriers, people will learn—free, open and self-paced learning,” Awwad said. “But completion rates were low.”

“Structure is needed, which is very opposite to competency-based education models in the market today,” she added. “We don’t want learners to start and not finish because they’re left on an island.”

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