Adult learners bring significant strengths to higher education, including lived experience, professional knowledge, persistence, and a clear sense of purpose. At the same time, many adult learners balance coursework with employment, caregiving, financial responsibilities, and prior experiences of academic uncertainty or discouragement. This Innovations in Practice article describes belonging-centered course design as a manageable framework for helping adult undergraduate learners in online and hybrid professional-preparation courses experience rigorous coursework as more navigable, participatory, and recoverable. The innovation is not a single instructional strategy, but the organization of familiar adult education online learning, belonging, and, inclusive teaching practices into five connected design moves: making the learning arc visible, teaching the hidden rules of academic participation, offering feedback that identifies a next move, building recoverability into the course, and communicating with warmth, clarity, and academic seriousness. These practices are grounded in adult learning principles, especially adults’ need for relevance, self-direction, respect for prior experience, and usable feedback, and are designed to reduce unnecessary ambiguity without lowering expectations. The article offers practical implications for adult educators, program developers, and administrators seeking to support adult learner persistence and confidence in online and hybrid learning contexts.
Adult learners in online higher education often face significant challenges to persistence due to competing demands from work, family, and other life responsibilities. These challenges are particularly pronounced in accelerated online courses, where learners must quickly engage with content, demonstrate understanding, and produce high-quality work in condensed timeframes. This article describes a practitioner-informed approach to promoting adult learner persistence through inclusive and intentional course design and delivery practices. Drawing from the design and facilitation of two sequential, accelerated eight-week online courses, this article outlines a set of integrated strategies that support learner success. These include consistent course structure, clear expectations, scaffolded learning across courses, timely instructor feedback, weekly screencasts for guidance and motivation, and flexible assessments aligned with learners’ professional goals. Additional practices include peer engagement beyond standard discussion forums, optional synchronous meetings, and involvement in service learning, conferences, and professional organizations to foster a sense of belonging and relevance. Importantly, all activities were designed to fit within the weekly instructional time to ensure learners were not overloaded. By embedding inclusive practices throughout both the design and delivery of online learning, this approach supports adult learners holistically and promotes persistence. These strategies are grounded in adult learning theories such as andragogy, self-directed learning, and Universal Design for Learning (UDL), ensuring both practical relevance and theoretical rigor. The article concludes with implications for instructors and instructional designers seeking to create supportive, learner-centered environments in online higher education.
