Adult students comprise a significant percentage of community college enrollments. However, these students have consistently completed college programs at lower rates than traditional-aged students. Community college structures, including student advisement, often align primarily with the needs of traditional-aged students. This has resulted in a…

State and national initiatives focused on meeting student completion goals have been established for higher education to help produce a stronger workforce and meet economic labor market demands. Some of these initiatives have been centered around improving adult learner enrollment and completion. More adult learners are returning to higher…

This study aimed to examine the relationship between student engagement and student retention of adult learners at community colleges. The relationship between student retention and the five Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) student engagement benchmarks (active and collaborative learning, student effort, academic challenge,…

The New Normal is rooted in adult learning theory, which explains how adults learn and why they learn in these aspects. This foundation is then supported by two pillars: cultural capital and the career pathways model. According to Bourdieu, cultural capital is the non-fiscal aspect of a person's education, social status, and language. Career…

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study is to discover the asynchronous online learning experiences that support learning motivation for community college degree-seeking non-traditional adult learners in the United States. The theoretical framework guiding this study is Knowles' andragogy adult learning theory. The utilization of…

The problem in this study is lack of research regarding perceptions of first-year nontraditional students (FYNTSs) who are enrolled in a face-to-face community college course regarding how mobile learning in the classroom affects their emotional engagement. Understanding this provides critical insights as well as enhanced and more accessible…

Objective: Policymakers in many states are endeavoring to increase graduation rates among older community college students. However, we know little about how the factors that influence college completion among older students differ from their younger peers. We aim to identify features of institutional contexts in which adult community college…

Background/Context: The Holistic Oasis for Parents' Education (HOPE) Program is an on-campus summer program designed to serve the whole student with a three-dimensional support model. Low-income, Black, and Hispanic parents experienced some of the most egregious effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which reflects the demographics of one in three…

The Coalition on Adult Basic Education (COABE) provides leadership, professional development, advocacy, and communication for the field of adult education. In our leadership role, we often have the opportunity to recognize exemplary work taking place at the state and local levels. Such was the case with a grassroots training that was developed to…

A quantitative predictive correlational study was conducted to find to what extent, if any, gender and adult student status, individually or in combination, moderates the predictive relationships between resilience and self-regulated strategies of Goal Setting (GS), Environment Structuring (ES), Task Strategies (TS), Time Management (TM), Help…

Through a gerontological lens, using grounded theory methods and both qualitative and quantitative data, we investigated the "off-time" enrollment of mid- and later-life (MLL) community college students (age 40+) to explore how their enrollment decisions and academic goals are situated in the timing and intersection of life events and…

For the purposes of this study, criteria for non-traditional students were: adults ages 25 and older, race/ethnicity, gender, entry date or transfer to a community college in Middle Tennessee during fall 2015 through summer 2021, and Pell/Grant eligibility. The problem is that non-traditional students have lower completions than traditional…

Neighbourhood Houses are significant sites of community-based adult learning spaces that are empowering, supportive and caring. They embody inclusive community development processes and adult learning practices that facilitate formal, informal, and incidental learning. Practices in these sites of social inclusion support relationships and shared…

Retaining students through degree completion is a challenge for community colleges, with nontraditional, adult students being retained at a lower rate than their traditional counterparts. Though student engagement is recognized as an effective strategy for retaining students, there is a gap in research on how effective these strategies are for…

This study investigates the critical literacy practices of adult learners at a community college. Student participants were selected from four different leveled reading courses. In this study, four guiding questions that were adopted from Klenner and Sandretto (2011): (1) How do students make personal connections to text?; (2) In what ways do…