Purpose: Digitalisation is reshaping the learning process, shifting it towards personalisation and online learning, and fuelling the growth of massive open online courses (MOOCs) and micro-credentials. Despite being a popular global trend, limited studies have looked at micro-credentials and their impact on learners' behavioural outcomes. The…

Despite the proven effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines in preventing severe illness, many individuals, including older adults who are most susceptible to the virus, have opted against vaccination. Various factors could shape vaccination decisions, including seeking health information (HI). The internet is the primary source of HI today; however,…

Purpose: Speech recognition in noise is challenging for listeners and appears to require support from executive functions to focus attention on rapidly unfolding target speech, track misunderstanding, and sustain attention. The current study was designed to test the hypothesis that lower executive function abilities explain poorer speech…

With the urgency of adult digital skill development as a backdrop, the Digital Resilience in the American Workforce (DRAW) initiative, funded by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education (OCTAE), conducted a national landscape scan to identify existing resources and effective approaches for digital skills…

The research team examined the associations between adult education and training (AET) participation, educational attainment, literacy skills, gender, race, and ethnicity among the U.S. adult population aged 25- to 65-years old (n = 5,450). As more women and racial/ethnic minorities make educational and economic advancements, it is important to…

In 2018, the author embarked on Master of Education research to investigate how mature adults were affected by regular participation in visual art classes. Visual art education is reported to have a positive effect on the cognition of mature adults in various contexts (Schindler et al., 2017; Wali et al., 2001), so this research investigates…

This study explores gender-related inequality in participation in Adult Education and Training (AET) in four countries with vastly different adult learning systems and support measures for women's AET. Our examination of the data from an original international survey conducted in 2022 has found that the participation of men and women clearly…

This study investigated the relationship between Foreign Language Enjoyment (FLE), Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety (FLCA), Out-of-Class Foreign Language Use (OCFLU) and learner factors (FL and FL proficiency level). Participants were 611 foreign language (FL) learners aged 16-72 at Spanish Official Language Schools. An online questionnaire was…

This qualitative study explores the perceived barriers to professional advancement among Black Americans who graduated from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs) in Louisiana. Through in-depth interviews with 36 participants spanning four generations (Baby Boomers, Generation X, Generation…

There has been a little research on emotion, cognitive load, or learning performance for digital game-based learning (DGBL). However, there is still a dearth of research on investigating the interactive effects of scaffolding DGBL and cognitive style on the above three outcomes. Participants were 97 middle-aged and elder adults from a community…

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the construct of a profound moment. Interviews were conducted using a semi-structured interpretive phenomenological approach. Interviews were transcribed, coded, analyzed, and considered in the analysis. Four themes were identified from the analysis: accepting what is, change of life axis,…

Technological resources have the potential to improve the quality of life in a context in which social pressure for the use of these tools is increasing. In this sense, the adoption of technological resources by the elderly is a highly complex issue because numerous and varied factors are involved. Precisely for this reason, this study aims to…

The rapid development of digital technologies and their increasing application in many areas of everyday life challenge all citizens to continuously learn digital skills. This also applies to older adults, among whom digital literacy is on average less well-developed than among younger adults. This article investigates why retired older adults…

Volunteer participation benefits societies and individuals. The objective of this study was to examine the roles of education and adult literacy in formal volunteering among a nationally representative sample of the U.S. middle-aged and older adults (45-74 years) by race and ethnicity (Whites, Blacks, Hispanics). Using cross-sectional data (n =…

This article aims to examine how to improve the support for working learners in their learning and education based on the findings of the issue's articles. For this, I focus on describing what can be learned from the articles' findings and, based on that information, discuss directions and practices necessary to support adult working learners. I…