Abstract

The creation of an ideal learning environment is always a challenge, but when the environment is online and the learners are a diverse group of adults in a specialized content area, the challenges become even more complex. This best practices study used the intersection of the importance of the learner, Knowles’ andragogy concepts, and the Dick and Carey instructional design model to make continuous needs assessment the cornerstone of three, graduate-level online courses during a single summer session. By active engagement in recursive learner analysis, the instructor was able to provide a personal and practical level of engagement in the asynchronous courses that ultimately benefited the students.

Highlights

  • Differentiated instruction—where learning meets each student’s unique needs—is one of an educator’s greatest desires, and it has transitioned in rhetoric from preferable to principle at all levels of learning

  • With adult learners who have a clear sense of their own capabilities and desires, there is a real opportunity for implementing instructional methods that are highly responsive and individualized—most notably through an enhanced focus on continual and recursive needs assessment in a way that we have only begun to fully exploit in distance education

  • The attempt to differentiate for individual learners and be fully responsive did have limitations

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Summary

Introduction

Differentiated instruction—where learning meets each student’s unique needs—is one of an educator’s greatest desires, and it has transitioned in rhetoric from preferable to principle at all levels of learning. This notion is constrained when the learners are college-level adults coming from sometimes remarkably disparate levels of knowledge and ability. It is even more complex when the course delivery is online, which means transformed options for student engagement and the ability to understand what each learner needs to thrive. Sometimes, technology drives this part of the conversation, but according to a thirty-year analysis of online learning theories by Mayer (2019), a recurring theme to address this complexity should be “instructional methods rather than instructional media” Limited resources in funding and technology, coupled with increased demands from institutions on faculty time and output, are key concerns (Lloyd, Byrne, & McCoy, 2012)

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