Adult learner: speak out

Adult learning courses are by character generally directed at you, the older learner. You’re in your silver years. You’re working either part-time or you’re an active pensioner. You enjoy working your mind and interacting with others, so you’d be more than willing to enrol in a course programmed in your free-time.

Adult learning courses are also usually part of the informal circuit; an educational domain where some believe anything goes. In translation this means, somewhere there’s a self-proclaimed tutor aka expert, who’d whisk any and everything together; label it a course and charge you an arm and a leg for it.


Quality assurance
Halfway through the (first) session, you get the creepy feeling you’ve been had. Near the end you’re seriously considering demanding your money back and filing a complaint for wasting your time.

Okay. You’re right. I might be laying it on a bit thick. For not all adult learning courses are like this. And there are Adult Learning Centres that cautiously guard the quality of the courses they offer.

But I’m sure at least one or two of you would’ve recognised the scenario I’ve sketched. Quality assurance is common and even taken for granted where formal learning is concerned. Don’t you wish the same to apply to adult learning in the informal educational domain?


QUALC and a conference
I support quality assurance for learning. Be it formal, informal or non-formal. Yes, it includes adult learning. So, that’s why I agreed to manage the QUALC LinkedIn Group when Rolf Reinhardt approached me. By the way, just in case you’re wondering, QUALC stands for QU in Adult Learning Centres.

And I’m happy to announce that on Thursday December 17, 2009 we’ll be holding our first Trans-National Conference.


QUALC and you
The QUALC project has been going on for the past 2 years, researching adult learning within the framework of a lifelong learning process. In this first conference we’ll discuss the project results in a three-way fashion: national workshops, a Second Life seminar and a round-table in Brussels, Belgium.

There are several European countries partaking in this all-in-one online collaboration: the United Kingdom, Romania, Italy, Germany and Sweden. But above all, we want you (the adult learner) to participate and voice your views and experiences.


Tell us want you want
Engage in the discussions the way that suits you most:

Live chat - You can follow the conference by live-stream on the QUALC website and on the adult learning NING. On the NING, you can chat live with the round-table team.

Tweets - During the conference, you can also follow us on Twitter and give your comments. Tweet using the hash tag #qualc.

Second Life - All interested in attending the Second Life seminar, can register at info@efquel.org. Registration closes on Wednesday, December 16 at 12:00 hrs CET.


More information
Rolf Reinhardt, rolf.reinhardt@efquel.org.

Please, do join us and tell us what you want.

— This was posted by Evita Martina, today’s guest blogger.
Her weblog Ivichie Says features pieces on older learners, E-Learning and such.