Houle conducted one of the first studies about adult learner participation. In 1961, Houle wrote The Inquiring Mind, which describes three distinct learning types: goal-oriented, activity-oriented, and learning-oriented learning. For more than fifty years, The Inquiring Mind has been read, referenced, and reviewed. Several scholars during the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s have added dimensions to Houle’s typology including: Sheffield (1964); Burgess (1971); Boshier (1971); Houle (1983); Gordon (1993); and Brockett and Donaghy (2011). What is missing in the current research is that no one has synthesized all of the literature and directly asked learners of today if the typology is still relevant, or if additional dimensions are needed for relevancy. Houle’s typology has been widely applied to various adult learners and not just non-credit adult learners. This study was conducted to explore if Houle’s typology could be applied to credit seeking adult learners in contemporary doctoral programs. The participants were doctoral students in the College of Education at a large urban research university. Results of this study concluded that participants were representative of Houle’s three learner types (goal-oriented learner, activity-oriented learner, and learner-oriented learner). However, these doctoral students did not seem to require as many social interactions as Houle’s non-degree students. Additional findings indicated that participants were role models, had a desire to contribute to society, gained self-confidence, sought self-fulfillment, and used acting as a role model to their children as a motivator. Seven themes found through this research were goal-oriented learning, activity-oriented learning, learner-oriented learning, role modeling, contributing to society, self-confidence, and self-fulfillment. All the themes seemed to be very prevalent among participants except for activity-oriented learning. One implication of this research is the importance of incorporating motivations into program planning to help adult participation in both credit and non-credit programs. Further research might be conducted with multiple universities and with participants seeking advanced degrees in varied disciplines.

Aim: This paper is a report on a study that explored the professional development of intensive care unit nurses in journal clubs. Background: Evidence-based practice is important in nursing care (Krom, Batten, & Bautista, 2010). However few nurses feel comfortable using evidence to guide their practice (Pravikoff, Tanner, & Pierce, 2005). Journal clubs are a way to establish science as conversation (Wright, 2004) and foster knowledge translation for evidence-based nursing practice (Goodfellow, 2004). Methods: Monthly journal club meetings were held with the participation of a total of 71 healthcare professionals (65 nurses, 2 physicians, 2 pharmacists, 1 physiotherapist, and 1 respiratory therapist), who worked in two intensive care units of an Ontario hospital. After six months of meetings, 21 individual interviews were conducted with nurses, physicians, pharmacists, and nurse educators. Additional data collection included two focus groups, surveys, a review of staff meeting minutes, and researcher field notes. Findings: Journal clubs provided nurses with incentive to read research articles, improved nurses’ confidence in reading research, created a community of peers who worked collaboratively to improve clinical practice, provided a structure for nurses to reflect-on-practice, and led to reported changes in clinical practice. However, the data suggests that any gains in competence of nurses with the critical appraisal of research articles were probably modest. Barriers to participating in journal clubs and evidence-based practice are also identified. Conclusion: Journal clubs can foster knowledge translation and evidence-based practice through creating a community of practice and by providing nurses with motivation, structure, and confidence to read research articles. However, nurses reported a lack of critical appraisal skills and uncertainty about how to implement evidence into practice. Journal clubs may have a greater impact when implemented alongside other knowledge translation strategies such as working with clinical nurse specialists in order to enhance evidence-based practice.

Dans un contexte professionnel en perpétuelle mutation, les salariés ont la nécessité de se former régulièrement, et ce quel que soit leur niveau de formation initial. Nous avons coutume de lire et d’entendre que le taux d’abandon et le taux d’échec des apprenants dans un dispositif de FOAD est supérieur à celui observé dans la formation présentielle. Ces défections ou revers peuvent être la résultante de divers facteurs dont: l'isolement de l'apprenant, un défaut d'ergonomie de l'environnement d’apprentissage (pédagogique, technologique) ou bien le manque d'autonomie de l'apprenant. Pour passer d’un système fondé sur la transmission du savoir (présentiel) à un système fondé sur l’appropriation et la création de connaissances (FOAD), il faut consentir des efforts particuliers, aussi, notre objectif est de découvrir : comment s’y prennent ceux qui vont jusqu’au bout et réussissent leur formation ? Pour répondre à cette question, nous allons investiguer les styles d’apprentissage des apprenants, qui induisent les méthodologies et stratégies d’apprentissage, ainsi que leur dimension auto-formative qui est une composante importante de la FOAD, due à l’éclatement des unités de temps, de lieu, d’action. Ainsi, nous souhaitons découvrir quels sont les styles d’apprentissage des participants d’une part, en essayant de voir quels sont ceux qui éventuellement dominent, et d’autre part, définir quelle est la capacité d’auto-apprentissage des participants dans le processus de formation ouverte et à distance. La FOAD suppose un ancrage fort dans l’humain, notamment les dimensions psycho-affectives et cognitives. Tous les participants ayant réussi leur formation, nous espérons découvrir chez eux des traits individuels, des dominantes ou constantes comportementales qui pourraient peut-être l’expliquer. / In a constantly changing professional environment, employees need to train regularly, regardless of their level of initial training. We usually read and hear that the dropout and failure rate of learners in an open distance learning device is higher than that observed in the classroom training face to face. These defections or setbacks may be the result of various factors including: the isolation of the learner, poor ergonomics of learning environments (educational technology) or the lack of learner autonomy. To move from a system based on knowledge transfer (face to face) to a system based on ownership and knowledge creation (Open Distance Learning), we must make special efforts, however, our goal is to discover how they managed to complete their education and succeed? To answer this question, we will investigate the learning styles of learners, which induce the methodologies and learning strategies and their self-formative dimension that is an important component of distance learning, due to the breakdown of unit’s time, place, and action. Thus, we would discover what are the learning styles of participants on the one hand, trying to see which ones may dominate the other hand, define what is the capacity for self-learning participants in the process of open and distance learning.ODL requires a strong anchoring in the human, including dimensions psycho-emotional and cognitive. All participants who successfully completed their training, we hope to discover in their individual traits, the dominant behavioral or constants that could possibly explain.

Information and communication technology has for long been integrated into learning and teachers utilize all forms of digital technology for communication as well as to simplify learning. To adapt, teachers need to personally or through informal learning process, learn about new technologies and how to utilize them to improve learning. To personally educate themselves, the teachers need to dedicate time and resources to identify ICT competence areas where is needed and sort for resources to solve it. This thesis investigates the process of self-directed learning with a group of teachers in a planned competence development program within a local municipality’s educational department, on the use of digital technology to integrate into classrooms. With action research that integrates instructional learning from the organizations perspective and inquiry learning from teacher’s perspective, self-directed learning process was tested as a simple and structured process for self/collaborative learning, for participants. The result was a series of events that summarized why teachers could not follow the learning process, with a conclusion that in order for teachers to be self-directed in learning new ICT, the organizational need to allocate time not only for instructional learning, but also for inquiry learning.

The objective of this correlation study was to describe the association between the self-directed learning readiness (SDLR) and academic achievement among community college students enrolled in student success courses. Data were collected from a convenience sample of 35 community college students enrolled in student success seminar courses in central New Jersey. Total scores obtained from the administration of the Self-Directed Learning Readiness Scale (SDLRS) were used to measure participants’ degree of SDLR. Participants’ GPA and final student success course grade was used as metrics of academic achievement. Additional analyses were conducted to determine if participants’ age and gender changed the association between SDLRS score and academic achievement. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2020. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Technology is changing the face of both the sales and service domains. Honebein and Cammarano (2006) note that properly implemented self-service technologies serve dual purposes of decreasing firm overhead costs, while simultaneously engaging the customer in a way encourages the co-create of value for both parties. To get these benefits stakeholders must be willing to adopt and use the technologies that are available. Traditionally, this has lead to the research question "How do firms do this?" However, according to a recent article by Woodall, Colby and Parasuraman (2007), consumers are now demanding more technology-based options and becoming more technologically savvy. This changes the research focus to answering the question "How can firms be seen as able to deliver technology-based options effectively, efficiently and securely to meet the demands of this new "e-service" model?" The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the role of stakeholder perceptions of firm attitudes toward technology in answering this question. Perceived corporate affinity for technology (Fleming and Artis forthcoming) is a measure stakeholder perception of a firm's general positive affect toward technology, and was developed and validated in sales and services contexts using samples of both employees and customers. The studies of this dissertation test potential antecedents, consequence and boundary conditions of stakeholder perceptions of corporate affinity for technology in three key groups, namely managers, employees and customers. To accomplish this purpose, the following research questions, one for each key group of stakeholders, were proposed for this study: 1) Do manager perceptions of corporate affinity for technology influence employee perceptions of corporate affinity for technology?; 2) Do employee perceptions of corporate affinity for technology influence employee learning behavior?; 3) Do customer perceptions of corporate affinity for technology influence how they perceive the quality of the service delivery and their rating of other key customer service outcomes? Separate conceptual models were developed and tested to answer these questions.

As a response to finding innovative ways of using games as tools for learning we explore the design process of creating a game system meant to promote self-directed learning. This thesis explores what design pillars a game system needs to follow when making a game that is meant to promote self-directed learning through reflection on cause and effect relations. We use a theoretical framework based on procedural rhetoric and self-directed learning in video games to inform our design process when creating an eco-adapted game system that provides experimentation opportunities. We adapt an ecosystem as a simulated real life context for our game environment and identify the major design pillars that video games looking to promote self-directed learning needs to consist of. The major pillars we found most important were; 1, activate participation, to engage the player by allowing them to experiment with different perspectives and the game state. 2, avoid correlating rhetorical arguments, to not influence players as they set their own goals when playing in an informal setting. 3, provide observational clarity, to let players learn how the actions they perform affect the actors and events in the game system. 4, enable trial and error, to give players time to explore multiple approaches in a safe environment where they can fail and try again without penalties. This thesis focuses primarily on the design process and documentation around the creation of a game system that adapts self-directed learning principles as a central design directive. In our design documentation we provide an open discussion of our design process around the decisions, findings, and implementations that make our simulation. / Som ett svar på att hitta innovativa sätt att använda spel som verktyg för lärande undersöker vi designprocessen för skapandet av ett spelsystem som är avsett att främja självstyrd inlärning. Denna uppsats undersöker vilka designpelare ett spelsystem behöver följa när man skapar ett spel som är avsett att främja självstyrd inlärning genom reflektion över orsaks- och påverkansrelationer. Vi använder ett teoretisk ramverk baserat på procedurell retorik och självstyrd inlärning i datorspel för att informera vår designprocess när vi skapar ett eko-adapterat spelsystem som ger experimenteringsmöjligheter. Vi anpassar ett ekosystem som en simulerad verklig omgivning till vår spelmiljö och identifierar viktiga designpelare som datorspel som vill främja självstyrd inlärning behöver bestå av. De huvudsakliga pelarna som vi fann viktigast är; 1, aktivera deltagande, för att engagera spelarna genom att låta dem experimentera med olika perspektiv och spelets tillstånd. 2, undvik korrelerande retoriska argument, för att inte påverka spelarna när de sätter sina egna mål medan de spelar i en informell miljö. 3, ge observationsklarhet, så att spelarna lär sig hur handlingarna de utför påverkar aktörerna och händelserna i spelsystemet. 4, möjliggör försök och misstag, för att ge spelarna tid att utforska flera tillvägagångssätt i en säker miljö där de kan misslyckas och försöka igen utan straff. Denna uppsats fokuserar främst på designprocessen och dokumentationen kring skapandet av ett spelsystem som tillämpar självstyrda inlärningsprinciper som ett centralt designdirektiv. I vår designdokumentation ger vi en öppen diskussion om vår designprocess kring de beslut, resultat och implementeringar som utgör vår simulering.

The goal of this dissertation was to explore how self-directed learners assess their learning in informal contexts. Self-directed learners experience high intrinsic motivation and learner control, so studying these learners? experiences provides valuable insights into learning. I pose four questions: 1) How do self-directed learners in informal contexts satisfy their need for a) autonomy, b) relatedness, c) competence, and d) prioritize the satisfaction of these needs? 2) How do self-directed learners in informal contexts self-regulate their learning? 3) What affordances are perceived by informal learners during self-directed learning? 4) What relationships exist between the satisfaction of learners? basic needs, self-regulation, and perceived affordances during self-directed, informal learning? I employ multiple methodologies, including interviews (N = 19) and an open-ended survey (N = 154), and based on this evidence, theorize a Lanes of Learning model to explain how learners regulate learning, assess competence, involve others, and use tools to meet their needs. Participants? needs also influenced which learning tools they integrated and, from those, what they perceived as possible, including accessibility, personalizability, and adaptability. Evidence shows learners in 1) Lane A prefer efficiency, collect confirming cues, involve others to meet a goal, and use tools that provide a set of correct steps; 2) Lane B prefer structure, collect confirming cues and add affirming cues, involve others for functional purposes, and used tool that resemble the real thing; 3) Lane C prefer depth and chase information as it becomes relevant, collect affirming cues, involve others for emotional reasons, and use tools that provides more information to chase; and, 4) Lane D prefer innovation, collect affirming cues and add confirming cues, involve others to build a network, and use tools that are inspirational, not educational. I argue people are motivated to learn when that learning is on their terms, and this motivation manifests in the strategies and processes taken by individuals during learning.

Experiential learning in adult education is on the rise. A small private college in the southeast United States initiated a program that required 3 experiential learning projects to be completed in addition to coursework. The problem was that less than 8% of students had independently developed their first project. Instead, they completed a project proposed by faculty. This situation resulted in student dependency on faculty rather than promoting self-directed learning. The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding about how to help students develop independent projects for the self-directed learning program. Experiential and self-directed learning theories formed the conceptual framework. The guiding question focused on how a select group of students described their ability to conduct a self-directed learning project. For this case study, individual interviews and documents were collected from 7 participants in the self-directed learning program. Analysis of the data by coding individual units of meaning revealed these 5 themes, which formed the basis of the findings: characteristics, self-motivation, lack of assistance received, personal gain, and advice for others. The commonly held major theme was personal gain. The second theme, goal setting, was discrepant. These were the major findings, which formed the basis for a proposed professional development training program for faculty facilitating the self-directed learning program. The implication for social change include emphasizing the importance of self-directed learning, supporting faculty for self-directed learning, and promoting lifelong learning. As a result of participating in this training, faculty will be better able to mentor students in the self-directed learning program.

Nous cherchons dans ce travail à qualifier et quantifier les différentes formes d’attrition prévalant dans les MOOC. En sus du retrait volontaire, dont nous détaillons les différentes formes, l’attrition est dominée avant tout par différentes formes de non-participation : la majorité des inscrits ne se connectent jamais à la formation, ou n’y réalisent qu’un nombre minimal d’actions, sans intention de s’y investir. La prépondérance de cette forme d’attrition s’explique en partie par l’existence sur les plates-formes d’hébergement d’une offre abondante, qui incite les utilisateurs à s’inscrire à plus de cours qu’ils n’ont la possibilité de suivre. Un certain nombre de participants s’investissent dans la formation jusqu’à son terme bien qu’ils n’obtiennent pas le certificat. Ils représentent néanmoins une forme d’attrition marginale. Il en va de même pour l’échec académique, compris comme l’incapacité à répondre au niveau d’exigence des activités évaluées. Les MOOC sont le plus souvent de niveau introductif, les participants peuvent le plus souvent recommencer des activités auxquelles ils auraient échoué. La plupart des utilisateurs suivent le cours avec l’intention d’en réinvestir le contenu dans leur vie personnelle ou professionnelle. L’incapacité des dispositifs à répondre à cette logique, qui correspond à certains égards à un projet d’apprentissage, explique vraisemblablement une partie significative du retrait volontaire. La plupart des répondants souhaitent obtenir le certificat de la formation, bien qu’il ne représente que rarement la principale motivation sous-tendant l’inscription. Cet intérêt ne relève pas systématiquement de buts de performance. / We aim at describing, quantifying and understanding the diversity of situations that explain the low completions observed in MOOCs, based on learning analytics, registration data from the French MOOC platform FUN, course structures, surveys and semi-structured interviews. Most of the attrition is explained by different types of non-starts, and to a lesser extent by voluntary withdrawal: most registrants do not show up in the cours, or do a minimal number of actions, with no intention to engage in the course whatsoever. The existence of an abundant catalog in most platforms drives users to register to more courses than they can follow. Some users view most of the videos of the course without engaging in the tasks required to obtain the certificate, but they represent a small part of the attrition. Academic dismissal is likely to be limited given the fact that most MOOCs are of introductory level, most evaluations are automated and multiple attemps are allowed. Most users follow the course with the intention to apply its content in their personal or professionnal life; a MOOC is most often the equivalent of a learning project. The inability to answer the needs of such learning projects may explain a significant proportion of the voluntary withdrawal. Few learners register in order to obtain a certificate, but most of them are interested in it.