Handbook of Research on Student-Centered Strategies in Online Adult Learning Environments: (Advances in Educational Technologies and Instructional Design)

As traditional classroom settings are transitioning to online environments, teachers now face the challenge of using this medium to promote effective learning strategies, especially when teaching older age groups. Because adult learners bring a different set of understandings and skills to education than younger students, such as more job and life experiences, the one-size-fits-all approach to teaching does not work, thus pushing educators to create a student-centered approach for each learner. The Handbook of Research on Student-Centered Strategies in Online Adult Learning Environments is an important resource providing readers with multiple perspectives to approach issues often associated with adult learners in an online environment. This publication highlights current research on topics including, but not limited to, online competency-based education, nontraditional adult learners, virtual classrooms in public universities, and teacher training for online education. This book is a vital reference for online trainers, adult educators, university administrators, researchers, and other academic professionals looking for emerging information on utilizing online classrooms and environments in student-centered adult education.

About the Author :
Carlton Fitzgerald graduated from Bates College in 1971 with a BA in sociology. After graduation, he was offered a job in his old junior high school to work with a team of teachers for 90 “drop back in” students (i.e., go back to school or go to jail). He also began taking coursework toward teacher certification. He worked in Maine for 10 years as a teacher mainly for students who struggled with school. In 1983, he moved to NH and became an assistant principal for a middle school and an elementary school. For the next 24 years, he worked in that district as an elementary principal, middle school principal, and a high school principal. In all of those years, his work centered around the idea that every student should have an equal chance for a great education. In 2007, he began full-time work at New England College, where he served as an Associate Professor and as an Associate Dean of Education. In 2013, he married his wife, who is a Romanian, and he changed his job at the college to become an Associate Visiting Professor of Education. He now travels back and forth between America and Romania each month. That move has given him the opportunity to work and learn online with undergraduate and graduate students. Simona Laurian-Fitzgerald (PhD., born on February 7, 1974) is an associate professor at the Department of Sciences of Education, Faculty of Social and Humanistic Sciences, University of Oradea (Romania). Her specialty is children’s literature, education, and English. She teaches classes in literature, drama in the classroom, cooperative learning, practicum experiences, and the capstone research projects for graduating students at University of Oradea. She teaches each student to develop and implement curriculum, lesson plans and assessment strategies. She incorporates strategies that instill cooperative learning techniques, student centered learning, multiple intelligences, differentiated instruction into the repertoire of students. Simona taught a number of online classes for the NEC graduate program and is teaching in a weekend hybrid program at the University of Oradea. Carmen Popa is a full professor at the University of Oradea’s Sciences of Education Department. Her specialty is Education Sciences. She is organizing the courses and seminars: Theory and Methodology of Instruction, Pedagogy of Pre-School Teaching, Cooperative Learning, Theory and Methodology of Curriculum, coordinating the practicum classes for the entire department, guiding the research projects for graduating students. She acquired a research grant entitled A Cross-Cultural Study of Implementing the Cooperative Learning Model in Primary Schools in Finland and Romania from Finland, University of Helsinki, Department of Psychology, Centre for Research on Networked Learning and Knowledge Building (2004). Since 2010, she is the coordinator of the educational program for the blended weekend classes (IFR) of the Faculty of Social and Humanistic Sciences. She was also a member of the Senate of University of Oradea.