For adults, learning is about busy intersections, not parking lots. And to take the metaphor one step further, what learners need most but seldom receive is a personalized map to help them get ahead.

Before we explain, return for a moment to a 10-year study called the Longitudinal Study of Adult Learning (LSAL). Conducted by Stephen Reder, professor and chair of the Department of Applied Linguistics at Portland State University, the study followed some 1,000 adult learners to understand how they learn. Through the LSAL, Reder and his colleague, Clare Strawn, found that self study and program participation are complementary approaches to learning. Furthermore, they found that if adult literacy programs are known for supporting self-study as well as providing classes, literacy programs could serve more learners, attract new learners to classes, and increase the overall persistence of adult literacy learning.

"It was the trouble people had that stood out in my mind," Reder said of the study.

"There was no plan that showed them where they were and where they wanted to go."

"Learners used adult education classrooms and learning centers. Some people tried to do it on their own or with tutors. Some learned on the job while others learned in the context of getting social services. But no one put all those pieces together for the learner. The learners had to figure out how to get to their goals."

That realization led Reder to two conclusions: Number one, paraphrasing politician Tip O’Neill: All learning is local.

"Even if there are wonderful technologies students are using, learning still takes place at a specific time in a specific place," Reder says.

Number two: Blended learning—supporting learners in multiple environments—is critical to successful outcomes. Tutors, teachers, programs, self study: all are important in the learning process.

"We need to start thinking about how students get to their goals in new ways, Reder says. "It is not always about how long someone stays in program as what going to the program means to that person. It is what is happening at the intersection of life and learning rather than how long they stayed in the parking lot. Particularly with blended programs, we really need to understand the long learning path people are on, not just the moments they might spend inside a classroom."

Reder takes the intersection metaphor from Kevin Leander who said that participation in an adult learning program is a "busy intersection among life and learning trajectories." The parking lot analogy comes from compulsory education, which traditionally measures learning by seat time or years in school.

Those ways of measuring success don’t work in adult education, according to Reder.

"Adults come and go as life circumstances allow them to," Reder says of adult education programs. "We need to figure out what supporting them over time means. Sometimes getting to the intersection and changing directions may be more important than staying in a program. To really understand the influence of programs, we need to know the trajectory of each person passing through. That trajectory may not be the same for each person."

Blended learning—which the LSAL study found is the most effective for adults—means supporting learners in multiple environments.

"This is a much richer concept than learners just doing some things on their own and some in a class," Reder said. "It is trying to provide a plan for each learner where they are and where they want to go, providing a structure they can follow."

The Learner Web
The question then becomes how to do this. One part of the answer may be the Learner Web, an innovative adult learning support system.

The Learner Web is actually an array of plans that adult learners can follow to move toward their goal and adult educators can use as a base to create more tailored plans for their students, taking into account life circumstances and community resources. Currently, Reder said there are about 40 plans although some are subsets of others. For example, there are several plans that address the goal of learning English for different skill levels.

Each plan has series of steps. Learners use a variety of resources. Some are online. Some are tutors or adult education programs in their local community. There is also a workspace within the Web where learners can take assessments or reflect on what they are learning. Counselors and teachers can look at the workspace and help learners assess where they are.

Reder said the Web is now being piloted in sites across the country and when the idea is fully developed and tested, it will be available through open source (free) software.

"As a society, we can’t afford to let people stagnate," Reder says. "After we leave school in our 20s, we are supposed to work another 40 or 50 years. People can’t just rest on their educational laurels that long. People have to be active learners."

The importance of this is already showing up with the preponderance of baby boomers currently in the workplace. These people are retiring and will be replaced by younger people with less education than the boomers and fewer skills.

"This presents a real challenge as a society to stay competitive on a global scale," Reder said. "In my state, Oregon, there is a smaller percentage of college-educated adults among 25-34 year-olds than among 45-54 year-olds. This is the first time in history that a younger generation is less college-educated than an older generation, and it is not just an Oregon phenomenon. We have stopped expanding access to higher education for various reasons. We’re not going to stay competitive unless we stay educated."

For more information contact Stephen Reder at 503-725-3999 or reders@pdx.edu. Also, go to newdigitalworld.ning.com to see a streamed version of Reder’s presentation. To read the newsletter story about the LSAL Study, go to ketadultlearning.org/LSALstudy