Online coursework is dramatically changing the higher education landscape, particularly for adult learners. And while research notes the way these courses increase college opportunity for post-traditional students, they have poor learning and completion out-comes at many of the institutions to which older students frequently enroll. The author conducted a qualitative exploration involving 34 adult students at a large community college on the west coast to better understand the perceptions, experiences, opportunities, and challenges of online instructional delivery for adult students. Informed by semi-structured interviews with participants, findings from this study highlight: (1) the challenge of being a digital/online course novice, (2) online courses as better in theory than practice, and (3) problematic institutional assumptions that online pedagogy is better for adult learners. Results from this investigation provide new directions for implementation of online courses for adult learners students in higher education.

中文翻译：

---

远程教育对成人学习者有帮助吗？来自美国社区大学定性研究的证据

在线课程正在极大地改变高等教育的格局，特别是对于成年学习者。尽管研究指出了这些课程如何为传统后的学生增加了大学机会，但在许多大学生经常就读的机构中，他们的学习和结业成绩差。作者进行了定性探索，涉及西海岸一所大型社区大学的34名成年学生，以更好地了解成年学生在线教学的观念，经历，机会和挑战。在对参与者进行的半结构化访谈中，这项研究得出以下结论：（1）成为数字/在线课程新手的挑战；（2）理论上比实践更好的在线课程；（3）令人质疑的制度假设，即网上教学法对成年学习者更好。这项调查的结果为高等教育成人学习者在线课程的实施提供了新的指导。