2019 Annual Conference

Adult Development

Shared Concurrent Session (Approx. 12 or 20 minutes)

This session presents unique and engaging doctoral research findings of adults enrolled in an accelerated degree completion program.  These adult students define persistence and success in an accelerated degree completion program, shared their experiences of the program and how the institution’s Accelerated Degree Programs addresses the barriers nontraditional students encounter.

This session will be of interest to academic deans, admission professionals, directors, program developers, and advisors within higher education -- anyone looking to attract and retain the nontraditional college student.  The nontraditional college student is typically also a working adult but someone who wants to complete a college degree.  This session will provide valuable feedback from the students’ experiences and the attributes of a successful accelerated degree program.  This session will attract individuals who are interested in growing and or developing degree completion programs for the busy working adult.

Learners will know how nontraditional adult college students define persistence and success while enrolled in a degree completion program. Additionally they will learn the attributes of a successful accelerated degree completion program from the students' perspective.

The nontraditional college student (NTS) population seeking degree completion has increased consistently and significantly over the past three decades becoming an important majority on college campuses throughout the United States.  However, the NTS has various issues and concerns that serve as barriers to successful degree completion which include competing responsibilities, course scheduling, access to financial resources, full-time employment, past academic failures, and lack of self-confidence about academic achievement.  This session presents unique and engaging doctoral research findings of NTS enrolled in an accelerated degree completion program.  These adult students defined persistence and success in an accelerated degree completion program, shared their experiences of the program and how the institution’s Accelerated Degree Programs (ADP) addresses the barriers nontraditional students encounter. By understanding the needs and motivation of NTS and how an accelerated degree program facilitates degree completion, colleges and universities could attract, retain, and graduate self-motivated adult learners seeking degree completion.

The session will be organized and presented as a conversation using a PowerPoint presentation with an introduction to the topic, current literature on the subject, a quick overview of the methodology of the doctoral research study. However, the focus will be on results and recommendations. In addition to Q and A.