educators

Completion of the HALE program required TE891 - an Educational Inquiry and Research Methods course. Because my work with online courses put me in proximity to primary investigators on a few research efforts related to the scholarship of teaching and learning I had some familiarity with human studies procedures and methods associated with collecting data or interviewing subjects. This course was my first pure introduction into research design.

Studying adult learning resulted in interesting spillovers from the topics I knew we'd be covering. Many of the 'differences' that adults demand from educational systems to enable their learning also potentially benefit all learners. Studying adult learning therefore, calls for studying learning broadly, and challenges us to focus more on learning then on the practice of instruction. Adult learning also reminds us that although we are educators, people are very able to learn on their own and many thrive outside traditional formal learning environments.