The Faculty of Lifelong Learning at South East Technological University's Carlow campus, is one of the largest providers of part-time learning in the Irish Higher Education sector. A large majority of our lifelong learners, 88%, are adult learners over the age of 23, therefore the perspectives of our part-time learners offer us valuable insights…

Despite the increasing number of non-traditional doctoral researchers, this population's experiences remain largely understudied and their voices unheard. Through in-depth interviews with 24 part-time online doctoral candidates, we explored the perceived facilitators and barriers to academic integration and sense of belonging, as well as how…

The increasing number of adult learners in higher education is a trend that has been observed in recent years. An impetus for this trend is the need for upskilling and re-skilling in order to stay relevant and employable in today's world of globalised knowledge. However, finding uninterrupted blocks of time to study in adult learners' busy…

With the rapid growth of digital education, e-learning has become essential for offering accessible and flexible learning opportunities. This paper investigates strategies to achieve long-term learning outcomes and reduce study time in e-learning. It explores various techniques, including self-testing, spaced repetition, and the serial position…

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in many tertiary institutions switching overnight from taught to online lectures without much preparation. Studies suggest that the sudden change has impacted on students' satisfaction with online learning in differing ways. Yet, little is known about how this change impacted specifically on adult…

This practice report discusses the development of the Head Start Online MOOC. This initiative targeted flexible learners, defined as adults engaged in part-time or online distance learning, during the initial stages of the study life-cycle. Drawing on the literature, the experiences of major international Online and Distance Learning (ODL)…

Given the rise of social media engagement within society, there are challenges for tutors in blended and online contexts to provide opportunities for social constructivist learning experiences within their institutional learning environments. This article proposes a module approach to teaching, learning and assessment for learners undertaking…

Although collaboration skills are highly valued by employers, convincing students that collaborative learning activities are worthwhile, and ensuring that the experience is both useful and enjoyable, are significant challenges for educators. This paper addresses these challenges by exploring students' and tutors' experiences of a group project…

This report forms part of an international project, led by UNESCO's International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP), on higher education's role in supporting "flexible learning pathways." Flexible learning pathways in higher education provide routes to the acquisition of knowledge and skills at different life stages, to meet the…

The North Dakota University System (NDUS) "2015-2016 Annual Enrollment Report" is an effort to report system wide, duplicated and unduplicated student headcount by combining degree credit and non-degree credit enrollments across the eleven NDUS institutions for an entire academic year. Additionally, non-credit enrollments provided…

In this study, the perceptions and experiences of an interprofessional team responsible for the development and delivery of the Registered Practical Nurse (RPN) to Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BScN) Blended Learning Program at Nipissing University were examined. In this program, RPNs can acquire a BScN through distance-based part-time study,…

Implementing Communities of Practice (CoP) in online learning is well documented (Gray, 2004; Wenger & Snyder, 2000), and is of particular interest to the LIS profession (Yukawa, 2010). Most of the students in school library programs are practicing teachers seeking to add the library science endorsement to their existing license. They are…

To improve student access and success in North Dakota University System institutions, the State Board of Higher Education has implemented enrollment policies that better reflect the differentiated missions of research universities, regional universities, and community colleges. This report addresses the transition in policy by grouping data by…

The learner's acceptance of e-learning systems has received extensive attention in prior studies, but how their experience of using e-learning systems impacts on their behavioural intention to reuse those systems has attracted limited research. As the applications of e-learning are still gaining momentum in developing countries, such as China,…

The SREB Fact Book on Higher Education includes data on the population and economy, enrollment, degrees, student tuition and financial aid, faculty and administrators, revenue and expenditures. With more than 100 tables of detailed information, the Fact Book is one of the nation's most respected and most comprehensive collections of comparative…