Introduction
This paper serves as an update on developments in institutions of higher education that offer multiple learning formats. As the population of students enrolling in accelerated learning programs expands from predominantly experienced adult learners to young adults and traditional students, the task of the academic adviser becomes a more challenging one. Academic advisers must (1) stay abreast of the differences in mentalities of these various student populations; (2) empathetically and cunningly fulfill students' course needs while helping them to maintain a responsible balance in their work, learning, and private lives; and (3) simultaneously develop the skill of teaming up these divergent groups of learners in order to make the experience a rewarding one for all stakeholders: the students, the instructors, the adviser, the institution, and, in the long run, the society in which these learners perform.
The Acceleration of Accelerated Learning
“Accelerated learning programs are one of the fastest-growing transformations in higher education,” writes Wlodkowski (2003, p. 5) in a review of the status of accelerated learning in colleges and universities.
So, what exactly is an accelerated learning program? Wlodkowski explains that “accelerated learning programs are structured for students to take less time than conventional (often referred as traditional) programs to attain university credits, certificates, or degrees” (p. 6). This author further clarifies that accelerated courses, in comparison to conventional courses, involve fewer contact hours over a shorter duration of time.
Accelerated programs are among the top educational discoveries of the past century. The reason for the birth and explosive growth of these programs is easily explained: everything happens faster nowadays, and thus higher education must follow the trend. This is particularly the case for adults who need continuing education in order to remain competitive in an increasingly demanding world. Wlodkowski (2003) estimates that, within ten years, at least 25 percent of adult students will be enrolled in accelerated programs.
Reviewing the attitudes of students in traditional versus accelerated programs, Wlodkowski concludes that both populations are thoroughly satisfied with their formats: the traditional, younger students with the more extensive format and the adults with the more condensed design. Wlodkowski cites Kasworm, who concluded from a 2001 qualitative study that “adults perceived their accelerated degree program to be a 'supportive world defined for adult learners' as compared to their previous impersonal and bureaucratic young adult collegiate experiences” (p. 9).
An even more interesting fact is that the desire for obtaining education in an accelerated format is spreading. Logically! Time is becoming an increasingly scarce commodity, not only for experienced adults but also for younger workers and for those referred to as “traditional students” as well. To them, learning, like everything else, has to happen in a time-effective way. And thus emerges the new trend: the mixed educational society. Younger working adults and traditional students are increasingly overstepping the previously perceived boundary for engaging in accelerated learning and now sign up for a growing number of high-geared courses. Should there be objections to this development? Some would say yes; others would say no.
Until recently, accelerated programs were seen as a way for experienced adults to obtain rapid higher education. But who would refer to younger university attendees as non-adults? So why would they be withheld from the opportunity to obtain their education in a more rapid format if they chose to do so? At Woodbury University, during the first few years that accelerated learning was offered, every student who wanted to sign up for accelerated learning had to have a minimum of three years of work experience. The philosophy at that time was that the accelerated learner had to be able to bring a significant amount of real-life experience to class, learn from his or her fellow students in a facilitative environment, and maintain a proactive and responsible approach toward executing a large amount of self-study. Yet younger adults are increasingly convinced that they, too, can contribute in valuable ways to the class environment, partly because they also have some real-life and work experience to share (although not as extensive as that of their more mature classmates), partly because they find that they can participate very well by being good listeners and asking questions, and partly because they create an interesting balance in the learning environment by bringing a perspective that is different than the one usually held by experienced adult learners.
What are the main differences between accelerated courses and traditional ones? Although there are undoubtedly a multitude of them, the authors of this paper came up with the following perceived differences:
| Difference | Accelerated | Traditional |
|---|---|---|
| Course duration | Accelerated courses are offered in five- or seven-week formats. | Traditional courses are spread over an entire semester. |
| Preparation | Accelerated courses demand thorough student input even before day one. | Traditional courses often leave space for students to be unprepared for the first meeting. |
| Participation | Accelerated courses are oftentimes designed for intense interaction between students. | Although fortunately evolving toward more interactive formats, traditional course designs still predominantly use the knowledge-deposit approach, whereby an instructor “feeds” information to a fairly passive audience. |
| Presence | Accelerated students are very rarely allowed to miss a session in their course because of the compressed format. | For traditional students, missing a few classes while enrolled in a course has been elevated (or degraded) almost to a tradition. |
| Grading | Because of the more facilitative approach in accelerated classes and the increased level of seriousness that students demonstrate in this format, accelerated students seem to achieve higher final grades than traditional students do. | Because of the more laid back mentality of traditional courses and the entirely different way of steering these classes overall, traditional students usually score lower than accelerated learners do. |
| Advising | Students in the accelerated format usually have a more focused approach toward the courses they want to schedule. | Students in the traditional format usually have a faculty member as an adviser and expect a mentoring approach with clear guidance from the adviser on which courses to select. |
The above table may provide the reader with an idea of the main differences between traditional and accelerated learning and the level of maturity that is generally expected in accelerated learning formats, as opposed to the relaxed, hand-holding approach that is still predominantly practiced in traditional formats.
Types of Students Entering Accelerated Programs and Their Diverging Needs for Advising
The number of traditional students with an interest in accelerated learning is surging. Until about a year ago, accelerated formats were predominantly accessible for adults with work experience. Now, younger, more traditional, less experienced students are allowed to contribute their insights and thus also benefit from the knowledge exchange that can occur in accelerated programs.
The following student populations are engaging in the accelerated format today (see Figure 1):
- Experienced working adults: workers who, after many years of working, have been confronted with the need to return to school to enhance their chances in an increasingly competitive work arena.
- Young working adults: individuals in their twenties who have continued their education right after high school while also beginning a career and/or a family.
- Traditional young adults: individuals without work experience who continued their formal learning process right after high school, but who now feel the need to switch their education into a higher gear to enter a work environment more quickly.
Figure 1: Three Learning Communities Switching to a Higher Gear
The first two categories can be advised in similar ways. However, it is the third group of learners—the traditional population—that forms the new challenge for advisers of accelerated learners.
Facing a New Challenge: Traditional Students Going Accelerated
At Woodbury University, when a traditional student expresses his or her interest in taking some courses in the accelerated format, the following approach is used:
- The student first visits his or her traditional adviser (a faculty member), who verifies prerequisite fulfillments and course needs.
- The student next visits the adult program adviser, who will co-sign the registration form and inform the student of the expectations and requirements of accelerated programs.
At this moment, the adult adviser, who, at Woodbury University, is also the accelerated adviser, starts the personal instructional session. The adviser informs the student that the accelerated instructors can drop him or her in cases of non-attendance and that he or she has the following responsibilities:
- Keep track of syllabi and assignment availability
- Purchase the course book before start of the first session
- Be prompt and attend all sessions
- Communicate closely with the adviser in case of unforeseen developments.
Problems Encountered by Students in Accelerated Programs
Life happens to all of us. A student in the accelerated program can be confronted with a myriad of unforeseen issues: a promotion that requires a sudden change of working hours or a relocation, family circumstances, illness, etc. When accelerated students face these challenges, they know that they should contact the instructor right away. If contacting the instructor is impossible (not all instructors are easily accessible), the student should speak to his or her adult adviser. The adviser usually knows how to contact the instructor and is, at the same time, well informed about the appropriate steps to take in cases of dropping, withdrawing, or appealing. The two main problems that students encounter when following the accelerated format are the following:
- Missing the first class: In 99 percent of these cases, the student is dropped from the course. Students who are not dropped by the instructor may assume that they have been dropped and still find that they receive an “F” at the end of the module. In these cases, students with appropriate and verifiable reasons for not attending may contact the adult adviser for a petition for a retroactive drop and an instructor's verification of non-attendance.
- Missing one of the subsequent classes in the module: In these cases, close contact with the instructor is definitely a must, preferably before the class is missed, so that something can be worked out. Usually the student will complete an additional assignment to make up for the lost time.
The Adviser's Task in Course Selections
As students in accelerated programs are driven to get through the curriculum as fast as possible, it becomes the adviser's unwritten task to keep an eye on their course selections. Three main points of attention in this regard are as follows:
- Ensuring that students do not take too many courses in the same accelerated module. Usually a fifteen-week semester comprises three five-week modules and two seven-week modules, running concurrently. Advisers should try to guide students into enrolling in one accelerated class at a time, with just a brief overlap in combinations of five- and seven-weeks courses.
- Ensuring that, in institutions at which traditional, weekend, and accelerated modules are offered, students make responsible decisions in balancing their course loads. If a student is weak in number-crunching courses, for instance, an adviser could advise taking those courses in semester-long modules (traditional or weekend) while taking the easier classes in accelerated format.
- Ensuring that students also have a balance of courses throughout the semester. It is preferable for advisers to supervise so that a student does not enroll in only math-oriented courses in a semester unless there is a specific reason for it, such as course offerings in leveled format (for example, accounting I in session 1 and accounting II in session 2 or elementary algebra in session 1, intermediate algebra in session 2, and college algebra in session 3).
In sum, it is part of the adviser's task to make sure that students are aware of the study load to which they commit so that withdrawals and the student's possible discouragement are reduced to a minimum.
Conclusion
The task of the professional academic adviser is obviously gaining importance as the number of students who want to switch to a higher gear increases. Multiple challenges for advisers are emerging at the same time and need to be faced at a pace that matches the accelerated format in which students prefer to learn. The switch to a higher gear is, as this paper demonstrates, not just a phenomenon that students are facing; it is important to the careers of advisers as well. It will be interesting to follow the developments in students' course preferences in the coming years, in order to find out whether traditional learning formats will become a minority or perhaps even be entirely phased out or whether equilibrium will be reached. Until then, and even after that fact has been established, academic advisers will continue to serve as the determining link between students, professors, and other academic services and can help to maintain balance in the lives of learners.