This chapter proposes approaches for assessing learners and evaluating courses and curriculum that could be used by directors of health professions education (HPE) programs to determine the effectiveness and impact of their programs.

In 2010, the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL) conducted the first major multi-institutional study of the relationship between prior learning assessment (PLA) credit-earning and student academic outcomes, which found that adult students with PLA credit were two and a half times more likely to have earned a postsecondary degree…

This edited book documents practices of learning-oriented language assessment through practitioner research and research syntheses. Learning-oriented language assessment refers to language assessment strategies that capitalise on learner differences and their relationships with the learning environments. In other words, learners are placed at the…

Academic language is a challenging yet increasingly important skill for Adult Basic Education/English as a Second or Other Language learners. Related to academic language learning is an adult's developmental perspective. Developmental perspectives have been shown to vary in adulthood and shape qualitatively distinct ways of reasoning and learning…

Malcolm Knowles (2011) indicates that adult learners are most likely to be actively engaged in learning when they are given some choice and control over the learning process. When the curriculum relates to the adult learner's interests, is individualized, and authentic; the adult learner becomes actively engaged in the process by making a…

Right now, accountability is the elephant in the room for many engaged in lifelong learning. It is difficult to find fault with the persuasive, evidence-based case for promoting lifelong learning so lucidly articulated in the main report of the Inquiry into the Future for Lifelong Learning. "Learning Through Life" deftly combines rigorous and…

For the thirty-eighth time, the Research and Theory Division of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) is sponsoring the publication of these Proceedings. Papers published in this volume were presented at the annual AECT Convention in Indianapolis, Indiana. The Proceedings of AECT's Convention are published in two…

Based on multiple sources, this article concludes that, when learner-centered instructional strategies are used with doctoral students, these adult learners take charge of their individual and collective learning, become accountable for both, and enhance their ability to transfer learning to practice. The students studied skills of developed teams…

In this article, Gwen Taylor describes the West Kentucky Community and Technical College (WKCTC) groundbreaking program, "Accelerating Opportunity" (AO), which targeted students who are deficient in math, reading, or writing. The program uses the Washington State Board for Community & Technical Colleges' (2013) Integrated Basic…

The current educational reform policy discourse takes for granted the central role of using data to improve instruction. Yet whether and how data inform instruction depends on teachers' assessment practices, the data that are relevant and useful to them, the data they typically have access to, and their content and pedagogical knowledge. Moreover,…

Many adults in OECD countries have low language, literacy and numeracy (LLN) skills. The consequences of these low foundation skills span the economic, health and social well-being of individuals, families and communities. Investment in this sector of adult education is therefore crucial. This study looks specifically inside the programmes for…

Excelsior College, located in Albany, New York, has been a pioneer institution in distance learning. The Integrated Technology Assessment (ITA) is one particularly unique dimension of student assessment offered by the School of Business and Technology at the College. This portfolio-based assessment method is a capstone experience for the BS…

The book provides best practices from online educators who are engaged in online teaching and program development in Christian higher education. It also explores the distinct aspects of teaching and developing online courses and programs from a Christian perspective and within Christian higher education institutions. As such it is can serve as a…

The objective of this paper is to draw attention to four features that distinguish the pedagogy of patient interviewing from the teaching of other clinical skills: (a) students are not naive to the skill to be learned, (b) they encounter role models with a wide variability in interviewing styles, (c) clinical teachers are not usually specialists…

Two perspectives are used to reflect on the learning design of a postgraduate online course--that of the designer/facilitator and that of the learner. While the course focus is on online pedagogical approaches, the main aim is to connect learners with each other and with the facilitator so that together they may investigate, trial, challenge and…