THE SUCCESS of ADULT and ONLINE STUDENTS Proven Practices in Higher Education

SUPPORTING THE SUCCESS OF ADULT AND ONLINE STUDENTS Proven Practices in Higher Education Edited by Kelly A. Flores, Kurt D. Kirstein, Craig E. Schieber and Steven G. Olswang Table of Contents Preface vii Part I Proven Practices for Supporting and Teaching Adult Students 1 1. Lean on Me: The Importance of a Social Support Network for Adult Students 3 Joel Domingo 2. Students’ “Dark Side” Personalities in a Classroom Setting 13 Joyce Mphande-Finn 3. Person-Centered Approaches: Providing Social and Emotional Support for Adult Learners 25 Ellen Carruth and Thom Field 4. Supporting Learners in the Virtual Classroom through Instructor Presence 39 Erin Noseworthy and Whitney Boswell 5. Engaging the Reflexive Self: The Role of Reflective Practice for Supporting Professional Identity Development in Graduate Students 53 Toupey Luft and Robert Roughley 6. Successful Mentor Matches: What It Takes to Ensure a Positive Mentor/Mentee Pairing 63 Sarah Piper-Hall Copyright ©2016 Edited by Kelly A. Flores, 7. Andragogy and the Adult Learner 73 Kurt D. Kirstein, Craig E. Schieber and Steven G. Olswang Charlotte Cochran and Steve Brown All rights Reserved 8. Insider Knowledge–Influenced Pedagogy 85 Arden Henley No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or 9. When West Meets East: Decoding Chinese Culture and How transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, Intercultural Communication Is Applied in Classrooms 95 recording, or otherwise, without the permission of the editors. HongYing Douglas ISBN: 1533071586 ISBN 13: 9781533071583 iii SUPPORTING THE SUCCESS OF ADULT AND ONLINE STUDENTS Part II Proven Practices for Motivating and Engaging 21. A Partnership Between Advising and Academics: Best Adult Students 107 Practices for Student Support 245 Melissa Myers and Pressley Rankin 10. Student Motivation in Online Courses 109 22. The Impact of Information Services on Student Retention 257 Gregory Price Mary Mara 11. Motivating Unmotivated Adult English Language Learners 23. Building Resilience in Adult Online Students 271 in an Advanced Reading-Writing Course 119 Pressley Rankin Rachel Peterson and Christine Knorr 24. Improving Doctoral Student Retention 281 12. The Use of Media in the Undergraduate-level Social Tony Dixon Science Courses 131 25. Retaining the Struggling Adult Learner 293 Anna Cholewinska Liz Bertran 13. Learning Communities as a Vehicle for Improved Teaching 26. Creating and Embracing a Learning Path for Student Success 301 and Learning 141 Craig Schieber and Sue Seiber Rachel Osborn 27. Supporting Student Success with Intuitive, Approachable 14. Embedded Library Instruction: Improving Student Success on Data Visualization 313 21st Century Learning Outcomes 155 Lindy Ryan and Nathan Snow Carolyne Begin and Tammy Salman 15. Attachment Security in the Classroom: A Proposed Professional Development Framework for Teachers 169 Jill Taggart 16. The Presence of the Teacher: Theory into Practice 185 Charles Scott 17. Engaging Pre-service Teacher Candidates in Academic Coursework: Using a Practice to Theory Approach 201 Leanna Aker 18. Moving from Labor to Talent 213 Laura Williamson and Monika Petrova Part III Proven Practices in Advising and Retaining Adult and Online Learners 223 19. Four Strategies Institutions of Higher Learning Can Leverage to Help Returning College Students Succeed 225 Arron Grow and Paula Grow 20. Diverse Credit Transfer: Student Opportunity vs. Higher Education Tradition 235 Kathleen Yackey iv v Preface This book is the fifth and final volume in the Proven Practices in Higher Education series published by City University of Seattle. In the five years since the first volume was published, higher education has experienced some substantial changes. It is now commonplace, even for traditional institutions, to have programs offered entirely online. Competency-based programs and adaptive learning models and tools are influencing an in- creasing number of students at colleges and universities across the coun- try. And improvements in Internet connectivity and communications technologies are transforming distance education to a format where syn- chronous, face-to-face interaction is, once again, an integral part. Through these many transitions, one factor that has not changed is the need to support students through the educational process. This book focuses on student support. The chapters that make up this volume ex- plore different proven practices when engaging with the nontraditional adult student. Part I focuses on proven practices for supporting and teaching adult students. At times, it becomes useful for instructors to have a clearer idea of the psychosocial factors that influence an adult’s ability and willingness to learn. To the extent that these factors present themselves as roadblocks to learning, an instructor may be required to provide social and emotional support to students to help ensure academic success. The practices included in Part I address social support, psychological support, and techno- logical support for adult learners and offer strategies to support students, both directly and indirectly, through the learning process. Part II shifts the focus to strategies for motivating and engaging adult students. One key characteristic of adult learners is that they are busy peo- ple; they have limited amounts of time and energy to dedicate to a large number of concerns. Any learning activity is competing with these other concerns. Thus, activities need to be carefully designed to reveal their rel- evance, or they will be left behind in short order. Learning that cannot be vii SUPPORTING THE SUCCESS OF ADULT AND ONLINE STUDENTS connected to practical value runs the risk of becoming useless drudgery Throughout the generation of this series, the intent has been to provide that adult students will resist. readers with proven practices that can be used to support and educate Motivating students requires instructors to establish a connection be- learners. tween the course content and factors of concern for the students; they Lastly, if we are to believe that experience is a great teacher, then have to see a personally relevant reason for extending the effort to learn. proven practices, developed through instructor experience, have much to The strategies in Part II of this volume help faculty members make this offer both novice and veteran educators. The insights included in all five connection. By addressing how best to motivate learning, in different volumes in the Proven Practices series were shared with this goal in mind. formats and through varied subjects, the strategies presented in these chapters are useful for instructors who wish to engage their students at Kelly Flores a higher level. Kurt Kirstein Part III addresses the process of advising students and the need to re- Craig Schieber tain them. So much of what establishes the quality of the student experi- Steven Olswang ence is determined outside of the classroom. From the application process through to the first course and beyond, students work with different in- Seattle, WA dividuals, including support staff and advisors, who help them get to the April 2016 right classes. Utilizing best practices in student support can make the dif- ference as to whether a student will stay or not. Once in class, the real work begins for many students who may strug- gle with a return to a structured learning experience after a long absence. Given the higher rates of attrition during the early stages of nearly every academic program, particular attention should be paid to strategies that can smooth the transition into classrooms in a manner that helps students recognize their potential success. Several of these retention strategies are presented in Part III of this volume. This book, the last in the Proven Practices series, makes a significant contribution to the list of progressive educational strategies that have been described in all five books in the series. Book one focused on authen- tic instruction strategies that linked learning to real-world experience. Book two presented innovative methods for teaching adults. Book three focused on how to teach leadership principles to emerging leaders. Book four focused on advances in exemplary instruction. Book five focuses on best practices in student support. Together, the Proven Practices series contains 102 chapters, each of which describes a method for improving the learning process for adults and online learners. The faculty, staff, and students at City University of Seattle have collectively generated these volumes to reflect a combina- tion of the research, theory, and practice, and real-life experience, of highly effective teachers and leaders within the higher education sector. viii ix Part I Proven Practices for Supporting and Teaching Adult Students 1 Lean on Me: The Importance of a Social Support Network for Adult Students Joel Domingo Abstract Social support and social support networks are important factors in creating positive feelings of self-efficacy and confidence and helping to mitigate negative feelings or behaviors. Typically used in health and well- ness environments, their utility in academic settings to address issues of student persistence is an emerging practice that continues to show promise. This chapter outlines the history and impact of these supports from the context of student affairs and the behavioral sciences and shares emerging best practices for consideration. The chapter concludes with several key principles

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