Adult learners at Wichita State University are using a new program to help them navigate school.
Adult Learners Community and Connections guides adult learners through a course about wellbeing and connects students with peers who help them navigate the university’s resources.
Pamela O’Neal and Amber Anderson, associate directors of the Office of Online and Adult Learning, said they created the program to address what they felt was a gap in resources for adult learners.
“That’s something that you hear time and time again, is that they need resources for them, and they need to feel that sense of belonging,” O’Neal said.
O’Neal and Anderson created a video pitching their idea and submitted it to a contest hosted by the Urban Adult Learner Institute. They won and received a grant which they used to launch Community and Connections as a year-long pilot program.
Cynthia Pizzini, a marketing student, said that when she left her full-time job to go to school, she initially found navigating her education difficult.
“There was a lot of resources, but I would always have to go and try to find them, and I’m on campus all the time, so I could imagine how difficult it would be for someone online,” she said.
“Digging through our website, it could be a little daunting. It’s hard to find things on there sometimes, especially when you need them, or (if) it’s an urgent matter, you don’t know who to call.
So when the program was announced, she jumped at the chance to help her peers.
“I was like, ‘Absolutely, I’m doing it,’” she said.
Pizzini said she hopes the program will break down some of those challenges that she experienced and keep adult learners motivated.
“The biggest step is coming back, so you don’t want another obstacle, or obstacles, put in your way to make you go, ‘Oh, this is too hard. I’m not going to do this,’” she said.
The second part of the program is a course with eight modules that focus on different types of wellness, like social, emotional and physical. The office worked with other student services to outline some of the resources available to students that correlate with those elements.
“If you’re overwhelmed, if you’re stressed, we all know how bad that can be on your health,” O’Neal said.
Students get prize incentives when they complete modules. The prize for completing the course is merchandise from the Shocker Store.
“Sometimes an adult learner, probably through their own thinking, kind of feels like maybe they don’t belong, but we want to show them with this that they belong,” O’Neal said.
O’Neal and Anderson said they plan to keep Community and Connections going after this year.
“(The next step is) to get feedback from the peer ambassadors, the departments that we work with, and the students,” Anderson said. “And then recalibrate and do it again.”
