FOR me, teaching adults is just like teaching nursery kids. They are hard-headed and will constantly challenge the professor for a number of reasons. The first reason is since they’ve achieved college education already, the continuing learning student would feel that he or she has the same degree of knowledge as what his professor possesses. The second reason is ego. As an adult, the student may feel insulted if the professor corrects him or her that he/she is wrong. The third reason could be that the adult student is paying his tuition and he or she does not take salary from the professor because he or she is employed, so why does he or she care? Whatever the reasons are, professors in adult learning need to prepare for the daunting task ahead? There are three ways in which professors can achieve this – the right techniques in course preparation, facilitation and assessment.

The first thing to do is create a harmonious atmosphere between you and your adult students and between the students themselves. Professors in online courses have this advantage already. They do not necessary come face to face with the students and would interact on them through the Internet only. Thus, harsh exchange of words or ideas can only be limited to text or audio and video media. Nevertheless, don’t undermine this potential threat – it still is psychology harmful for both the professor and the student. The student in particular may be frustrated in not passing the course if the continued online verbal assaults would not decline.

To establish rapport between you and the students, email to them one by one your home webpage. In that welcome page, vividly outline the student on what he or she will expect from the course. Be friendly in your introduction but don’t make it too personal. Remain to take control as you are the professor. Always remind the student that the grade he or she will be getting is just commensurate to what they’ve learned. Inhibit yourself from all responsibilities that is associated with the student’s grade. You are just there to correct the students’ exam, not evaluate them. Let each of the students introduce themselves CV style. But never ever seduce a student sexually or ask other favors from him or her. That is a ground for sexual harassment and other ethical policy violations.

On the actual course itself, preview the topic with a video-audio presentation. Of course, this must be the responsibility of the course director already. It would be stupid if the professor himself will be the one to excruciatingly prepare a video presentation. Next, encourage the students to research on the Internet and delve more on the topics at hand. To do this, provide the students a list of WebPages that he can research upon. Encourage the students to have a web conference and discuss the topics thoroughly. With that, you need to enumerate a few questions so chatting among the students would be intelligently done. The biggest tip of all – make online adult learning fun.