Meeting the challenges of continuing education online courses: Can we promote self‐regulated learning strategies with adaptive support?

Abstract

Online courses are particularly attractive in continuing education because they offer a high degree of autonomy and flexibility, although this requires learners to take greater responsibility for self‐regulating their learning. That can be challenging for adult learners as they need to handle other obligations in addition to learning. Thus, self‐regulated learning (SRL) support might be needed. In the present study, we aimed to investigate how the specific SRL challenges that adult learners face in online courses can be supported adaptively. Main challenges for adult learners consist in managing learning resources (e.g., time, attention, learning environment). To address these challenges, we developed an adaptive support intervention comprising several features. To assess the effects of the adaptive support on the self‐reported SRL strategy application of adult learners, we analysed data from five iterations of a continuing education online course comparing iterations with adaptive support (with a total of N = 36 participants) to iterations without (with a total of N = 35 participants). Results indicate that the adaptive support significantly improved environmental structuring but did not significantly affect other SRL strategies. Further analyses revealed that learners who did not use the support deteriorated in managing their learning time and in setting specific learning goals during the course. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic Adult learners are likely to face various challenges in self‐regulated online learning, including managing conflicting responsibilities and maintaining focus. Adult learners' successful application of SRL strategies can be challenging, underlining the need for support. Adaptive support interventions have demonstrated positive effects in various educational contexts, indicating potential effectiveness for adult online learners as well. What this paper adds The study provides insights into the positive effects and potential pitfalls of designing an adaptive support intervention to improve adult learners' self‐reported use of the SRL strategies of effort, attention, time management, environmental structuring, and goal setting. Implications for practice and/or policy The findings suggest that providing adaptive support, namely a structured course overview and adaptive recommendations of learning time and relevant content, can positively influence adult learners' environmental structuring. Our findings also highlight the challenge of achieving optimal support design, as evidenced by low support use. This finding highlights the need to explore additional methods to motivate adult learners to use the support provided while carefully respecting their autonomy.

Perceptions and self-management of a healthy diet among middle-aged adults with risk of stroke in North China: a qualitative exploration

“…Based on these current issues, it is necessary to strengthen professional and personalised education through various channels, which is in line with the findings of Katharina. 41 In the study, participants also expressed support for mobile interventions. They believed that this approach is convenient and would effectively use the potential of educational applications on a smartphone.…”

Adaptive support for self‐regulated learning in digital learning environments

“…Still, responsible usage and demonstrated long-term efficiency must be carefully considered before fully embracing generative AI bots to provide adaptive SRL support. The fourth article by Teich et al (2024) highlights concerns that although adaptive SRL support is valuable, its applicability and benefits may be limited to schools and Massive Open Online Courses and not presumably valid in continuing education settings.…”

“…• Challenges in designing and deploying adaptive SRL support Apparently, while research carried out in this special section on designing, developing and evaluating adaptive support for SRL offers valuable insights to enhance the dynamic process of students' SRL across the learning trajectory in digital learning environments, several limitations were reported. The corpus of the empirical studies in this special section (Dever et al, 2024;Lim et al, 2023;Ng et al, 2024;Pijeira-Díaz et al, 2024;Saqr & López-Pernas, 2024;Teich et al, 2024) highlight a key issue: generalisability. The studies provide evidence for effective adaptive SRL support, however on a limited scale.…”

“…The findings supported the potential of adaptive interventions for adult online learners, however with important highlights. Teich et al (2024) found that adaptive support interventions significantly improved learners' ability to structure their learning environment. Yet, it did not have a statistically significant impact on other SRL strategies like effort, attention or time management.…”

“…Finally, Teich et al (2024) investigated how to support adult learners in managing learning resources for online continuing education course in the article 'Meeting the challenges of continuing education online courses: Can we promote self-regulated learning strategies with adaptive support?'. They developed an adaptive support intervention with features specifically designed to address self-regulation challenges.…”