Posted: March 18th, 2023

Cognitive Development in Late Adulthood

Adult Education and the Internet

Higher Education, the Internet, and the Adult Learner

The concept of using the Internet in the pursuit of higher education is not exactly new. Indeed, the institution of “distance learning,” has been in full swing since the heyday of late night Sally Struthers correspondence-school commercials. What has changed, however, is the increasing legitimacy and widespread use of the Internet in the pursuit of higher education — from the research of traditional college students, to the complete education of students enrolled in “online universities” and courses.

Adult students face unique challenges when they utilize the Internet as part of their education in ways that mirror the issues they face within other instructional modalities.

In seeking to understand just how adults learn, these issues must be viewed collectively, for general adult learner/adult education studies must be considered as a whole along with the added factors arising out of the use of technology. It is in this synthesis that a good understanding of the behavior of adult learners in Internet/distance courses can be understood.

The Adult Learner and Adult Education

There is no question that adults experience and approach education in very different ways from younger learners. This fact is supported by the vast field of educational theory that has sprung up around the topic itself. Indeed, there are countless books that deal with the unique position and characteristics of adult vs. child students, as well as older-adult vs. traditionally-aged students in higher education settings.

One of the first aspects of difference between adult and younger learners is the adult’s need for a certain amount of autonomy and self-accountability. This need is not merely due to the increased autonomy that the adult is accustomed to in other aspects of daily life, but to greater amounts of life-experience, knowledge, and perceived self-independence that increased age (in most cases) naturally brings. Interestingly, Internet-based learning necessarily carries with it an increased reliance on personal accountability and autonomy, especially when it is relied upon as a primary educational mode (as a distance or online course).

Whereas lower-age and lower-level students may experience increased autonomy as a difficulty; perhaps manifesting itself in variying shades of procrastination in the absence of daily contact with a “flesh and bone” professor, the adult learner seems to experience increased success. The psychological reason often attributed to this difference in learning style is discussed in Karen Webster, Miriam Zachariah, and Joelle McFaury’s article, Do Adults and Children Learn Differently? There they write, “Adults need to be self-directed in their learning because they are maturing and moving away from the dependency of children.” Further, Dirkx and Lavin observe in Planning and Implementing Integrated Theme-based Instruction, that adult learners place importance on the perception that they have control over their education. Further, they tend to be “voluntary” learners — that is exclusively motivated by self-desire based on specific life-goals rather than ambiguous ideas.

Although this idea of the self-motivating nature of adult learners certainly lends itself to the importance and appropriateness of the utilization of independent Internet educational techniques and resources, it is important to note that there are objections and qualifications to the theory that all adult learners are self-motivated in all subject areas and in all situations. Indeed, in the article Assumptions about the Adult Learner, it is noted that, “[Adult learners]…may evidence a greater or lesser degree of self-directedness depending on their maturity level and familiarity with the content.”

Interestingly, other experts have also challenged the assumption that adult learners are always independently motivated, and prefer independent learning strategies. These experts theorize that factors such as gender, political climate, cultural differences, subject area, and previous experience may effect the extent to which an individual, or group of adult learners respond to independent learning.

This is an area on which Stephen Brookfield comments in the International Encyclopedia of Education, where he writes:

number of important questions remain regarding our understanding of self-direction as a defining concept for adult learning. For example, the cross-cultural dimension of the concept has been almost completely ignored. More longitudinal and life history research is needed to understand how periods of self-directedness alternate with more traditional forms of educational participation in adults’ autobiographies as learners. Recent work on gender has criticized the ideal of the independent, self-directed learner as reflecting patriarchal values of division, separation, and competition. The extent to which a disposition to self-directedness is culturally learned, or is tied to personality, is an open issue. We are still struggling to understand how various factors – the adult’s previous experiences, the nature of the learning task and domain involved, the political ethos of the time – affect the decision to learn in this manner.

Further, Brookfield goes farther than merely stating that the independent-learning model may not apply to all adult students, and asserts that an over reliance on this model on the part of either the student, or the educator or institution, may have its own significant drawbacks in a number of ways. He writes:

work is needed on clarifying the political dimensions of this idea; particularly on the issues of power and control raised by the learner’s assuming responsibility for choices and judgments regarding what can be learned, how learning should happen, and whose evaluative judgments regarding the quality and effectiveness of learning should hold sway. If the cultural formation of the self is ignored, it is all too easy to equate self-direction with separateness and selfishness, with a narcissistic pursuit of private ends in disregard to the consequences of this for others and for wider cultural interests. A view of learning which views adults as self-contained, volitional beings scurrying around engaged in individual projects is one that works against cooperative and collective impulses. Citing self-direction, adults can deny the importance of collective action, common interests and their basic interdependence in favor of an obsessive focus on the self.

Clearly, this observation raises the issue of a balance that must be struck between acknowledgment of the supposed pervasive tendency among adult learners toward independent learning (especially utilizing the Internet — a medium in some instances, even more removed from human interaction than the distance learning models of past technologies), a tendency that must be accepted with a grain of salt in light of the recent qualifications Brookfield mentions, and the very real world necessity of cooperation, interpersonal interaction and communication, and collective learning and peer collaboration.

In addition to an increased need for self-direction in the adult learner’s higher education goals, he or she usually demonstrates (as a demographic) a tendency to bring a sense of personal experience to their studies. This sense of personal experience has been described as a “living textbook.” This means that the adult learner commonly has a wealth of personal experience, beliefs, knowledge, and skills that directly impact the way he or she responds to learning and education. Interestingly, the vast majority of the current educational models developed for adult learners view this tendency to be almost completely positive, again Brookfield observes:

Almost every textbook on adult education practice affirms the importance of experiential methods such as games, simulations, case studies, psychodrama, role play and internships and many universities now grant credit for adults’ experiential learning. Not surprisingly, then, the gradual accumulation of experience across the contexts of life is often argued as the chief difference between learning in adulthood and learning at earlier stages in the lifespan.

However, many adult educators seem to ignore the very real problems that can arise from the adult learner’s reliance on their “living textbook” in relation to novel (or even, not so novel) subject matter.

To be sure, the very nature of experience involves preconceived notions that can taint the ability of the individual to learn new material. Examples of this might range from indoctrination in old or outdated theories (for example, until recently, most adult students were taught the theory of the “Big Bang” as undisputed fact, rather than theory — this may predispose such students to resist contemplation of other theories currently en vogue). Further, the adult learner’s past successes and/or failures in previous educational endeavors may have left them with motivational difficulties, misguided attitudes concerning aptitude/ability, and rigidity regarding a specific subject area (as is often the case concerning attitudes about computer technology).

In addition to these, rather obvious problems concerning the pool of experience that the adult learner brings to their educational table, there exist even more complex issues of cultural and ideological issues related to individual experience and memory. Brookfield writes:

First, experience should not be thought of as an objectively neutral phenomenon, a river of thoughts, perceptions and sensations into which we decide, occasionally, to dip our toes. Rather, our experience is culturally framed and shaped. How we experience events and the readings we make of these are problematic; that is, they change according to the language and categories of analysis we use, and according to the cultural, moral and ideological vantage points from which they are viewed. In a very important sense we construct our experience: how we sense and interpret what happens to us and to the world around us is a function of structures of understanding and perceptual filters that are so culturally embedded that we are scarcely aware of their existence or operation. Second, the quantity or length of experience is not necessarily connected to its richness or intensity. For example, in an adult educational career spanning 30 years the same one year’s experience can, in effect, be repeated thirty times. Indeed, one’s ‘experience’ over these 30 years can be interpreted using uncritically assimilated cultural filters in such a way as to prove to oneself that students from certain ethnic groups are lazy or that fear is always the best stimulus to critical thinking. Because of the habitual ways we draw meaning from our experiences, these experiences can become evidence for the self-fulfilling prophecies that stand in the way of critical insight. Uncritically affirming people’s histories, stories and experiences risks idealizing and romanticizing them. Experiences are neither innocent nor free from the cultural contradictions that inform them.

Clearly the use of the Internet as an educational technology (when this problem is not acknowledged and dealt with) can allow the drawbacks of experiential contextualization to persist, where, perhaps in a traditional learning environment — one that includes students of varying age, experience, cultural and ideological background, and one that forces the adult learner’s participation in discussion and dialogue — the vantage points of other students may have a greater influence and changing effect. Here, awareness of the problem can be an important tool in developing and implementing “online courses,” for educators can employ discussion groups online that have the ability to closely mimic physical classroom participation.

A third area of difference that is commonly attributed to adult learners is their tendency to want to relate what they learn to specific and tangible needs in their lives. As a group, they seek education as a means to advance professionional and social/economic position. Interestingly, this can also be an asset or a detriment depending upon the subject being studied.

For example, as a group, adult learners tend to favor the practical side of learning rather than the theoretical. Further, not only do adult learners lean toward practicality in their educational preferences, but they are far less willing (or far less able) to allow their studies to take precedence over other aspects of their lives — aspects that may include family or career obligations. It is this overriding tendency among adult students to place their studies in a secondary position that has led to the increasing popularity of Internet-based education. This is simply because the online format allows a greater flexibility of time and resources than that found in a traditional classroom.

It is hardly surprising that given the pervasive traits among the majority of adult learners (including self-directedness, high levels of personal experience, and a desire for practicality), that the Internet is a particularly popular, and powerful tool in the adult education milieu. To be sure, unlike previously unwieldy, complicated, and dubious “correspondence course” formats, Internet-based adult education is gaining legitimacy, practicality, and popularity among students and educators alike. However, a solid grasp of some of the pitfalls of adult learners can help educators develop Internet-based methods that serve to counter those pitfalls.

Learning Theories and Processes in Adults

The way in which adults learn is often described as a process quite different from one a child might experience. Although the subject of learning process can be every bit as complex and controversial as the characteristics common to the adult learner, four major process theories often emerge.

Although many site the four major processes as acquisition, reflection, practical need, and embodied co-emergent, it can be helpful to view the four process theories as “perspectives.”

In this vein, Tara Fenwick describes these four theories of process as lenses through which adult learning processes might be viewed. She writes:

Mindful of these three considerations, we offer in this chapter various theories of adult learning grouped into four perspectives. Think of these as four different lenses for viewing learning processes. The learning as acquisition lens understands knowledge as a substantive thing – a skill or competency, concept, new language, habit, expertise, or wisdom – that an individual obtains through learning experiences. Learning as reflection is a lens focusing on learners as active constructors of knowledge, creating new meanings and realities rather than ingesting pre-existing knowledge. The practice-based community lens of learning focuses more on people’s ability to participate meaningfully in everyday activities within particular communities of practice than on their mental meanings. Going even further, the lens of learning as embodied co-emergent process challenges people-centered notions to portray learning as emerging in the relationships that develop among everyone and everything in that situation – people, spatial arrangements and movements, tools and objects. While appearing mutually oppositional, these four perspectives are not as clearly distinct as this categorization implies.

As mentioned above, the acquisition model of the adult learning process describes learning as an almost impartial — as if there are no underlying issues of difference among the adult learner population. In the purely acquisition model, knowledge is a “thing” equally obtainable by all adult learners in the same way. However, as Fenwick observes, the model acknowledges difference mainly through varying levels of “experience” that the individual student is capable of bringing to the table. According to Fenwick (and several other critics), it fails to address the following:

acquisition theories tend to imply a fundamentally additive conception of learning. Their representation of knowledge as a substantive thing pre-existing the learning individual who ingests it is vehemently denied by critics…Acquisition does not focus on the differential knowledge that people construct, individually and collectively, through different meanings of their experiences. Nor does it dwell on how adults revisit and re-construct these meanings, or how they often experience transformation of identities and knowledge through reflective learning processes.

The next “lens” or theory of the adult learning process, the “reflection” model, is particularly appealing when one remembers the theory that adult learners tend to favor individuality in education. Although this process theory supports the fundamental individuality trait, it also brings to the forefront an inherent difficulty that adult learners and educators might encounter — namely that the understanding of a particular concept, or idea is relative to the individual learner, and may differ substantially from the understanding of other students, or even the instructor.

Fenwick writes:

This prevalent and influential adult learning perspective casts the individual as a central actor in a drama of personal meaning making. As learners reflect on their lived experience, they actively interpret what they see and hear, emphasizing aspects of greatest personal interest or familiarity, and so construct and transform their own unique knowledge. This means that in a classroom of adults listening to a presentation, each learner will most likely construct a very different understanding of what they are hearing (which may or may not approximate what the speaker thinks she is saying!).

The practice-based model, on the other hand seems to encounter less of this “relative” nature of knowledge, and instead focuses on learning in a situational context — one in which the participants agree on the “practice.” This situational context can include groups of individuals in the workplace, organization, club, or sports team (to name a few examples). In this reality, learning is embedded in the circumstances in which the group exists, and, by extension, in which the individual learner belongs. Here, almost no emphasis is placed on the individual’s reasoning, experience, or individual understanding, but instead, on the version of valued knowledge that the group acquires, values, and promotes.

However, like most real-life situations, the practice-based community model has its drawbacks. This includes the vast chasm that opens up between ultimate universal “truth” and “untruth.” Learning becomes relevant only to a particular group situation.

The final common theory of adult learning process is the “learning as embodied and co-emergent.” This theory of process is far more complex and encompassing than the previous three, and involves the “interconnection” of individual adult learners with all of the contexts in which they interact (and the “truths” and knowledge contained within those contexts). One common way in which this theory is explained is by comparing it to a “conversation:”

Educators might understand this phenomenon through the example of conversation. As each contributes, changing the conversational dynamic, other participants are changed, the relational space and governing rules among them all changes, and the looping-back changes the contributor. This is ‘mutual specification’ (Varela et al., 1991), the fundamental dynamic of systems constantly engaging in joint action and interaction. As actors are influenced by symbols and actions in which they participate, they adapt and learn. As they do so, their behaviors and thus their effects upon the systems connected with them change. With each change these complex systems shift, changing their patterns of interaction and the individual identities of all actors enmeshed in them. Thus environment and learner emerge together in the process of cognition.

Although these four theories on the process of adult learning are on some levels incompatible, there remain aspects of accuracy in all of them that can be applied to the understanding of the subject. According to writers like Fenwick, no single theory is all inclusive of the processes involved in adult learning. Indeed, she writes that, “Closure on any single perspective reduces rather than enhances the possibilities of adult learning.

Developmental Issues

Of course, there are several development issues that directly impact the experience of adult learners. To be sure, those with the greatest impact on the ability of the student to learn effectively involve biological, psychological, and sociocultural issues.

All students are greatly affected by biological issues. For the adult learner as a group, the biological issues of cognitive development and intelligence are of central concern. This is simply because, as the adult learner ages, he or she will pass through specific developmental and aging phases. With relation to cognitive development and intelligence, adult learners can be categorized into three different groups according to prevailing common characteristics. These are Early, Middle, and Late Adulthood.

In early adulthood, cognitive changes occur in the form of a growing consciousness of several truths, an increased melding of reality with logical reasoning, and a growing acceptance of gaps between reality and idealistic notions of reality. In addition, scientific findings suggest that intellectual performance improves steadily during this time.

As the adult passes into the stage of middle adulthood, changes in intellectual ability occur. These include a decline in so called, “fluid intelligence,” or the “flexible reasoning used to draw inferences and understand relations, and an increase in “crystallized intelligence,” or the “accumulation of facts, information, and knowledge that comes with experience.” In addition, the concept of “emotional intelligence,” or the ability to understand social and interpersonal interactions, nuances, and contexts seems to increase during this period as well.

Finally, in late adulthood, several cognitive changes seem to occur. These include further increases in crystallized and pragmatic intelligence, and specific declines in the areas of speed of information processing, working memory (or short-term memory), and perceptual speed.

In addition to the biological influences on adult learning, specific psychological issues have a significant effect as well — issues that range from the feeling of being too old to learn, or of not being “smart,” to poor self-image with regard to ability in technological applications, to feelings of superiority (due to experience), or inferiority and shame due to age and a perceived failure.

Interestingly, both the “physical” changes in cognition, as well as the psychological issues that commonly effect adult learners are, at least in part, effected by sociocultural influences. Even the seemingly cut and dry changes in physical memory can be influenced by societal beliefs in the effects of aging on memory and intelligence. After all, if society collectively believes that memory fails with age, or that wisdom increases with it, the individual may be influenced to perceive themselves under that collective belief. So, too, do psychological issues in adult learners often have their root in cultural or societal mores. Indeed, if the society in which an individual operates looks down on adult learners as “perpetual students,” for example, that individual is likely to view his or herself somewhat negatively. Or, perhaps if older adults are perceived as being “technically illiterate,” they may suffer from a lack of confidence when faced with a computer or technical subject.

Theory and Practice

Clearly, understanding the theoretical reality of how adults learn (or at least, understanding some of the predominant theories), is the first step in developing a practical application of that knowledge. Models of instruction/education that may work well for younger students may not be as effective for the older learner. For this reason, it is important for the educator to incorporate the characteristics common to most adult learners in the development of educational programs.

Indeed, as much as possible, developers of educational programs targeted at adult learning groups (or programs that tend to feature adult learners in the class), should take the unique developmental needs of those learners into account — in all of their stages.

Examples of incorporating adult learning characteristics into an educational program might include providing opportunities to utilize past experience in coursework, provide greater autonomy and self-direction, gear instruction to “real-world” applications, and take into account differences in cognitive tendencies and socio-psychological pressures and influences.

Although the development of a program tailored to the adult student is important, it is equally important for the educator faced with the task of implementing that program be fully cognizant of adult learning characteristics. This is due to the educator’s unique role as the personification of the institution, information, or course matter presented.

Further, this is true even in cases of online instruction, when the student may never meet the instructor face-to-face.

According to Susan Imel in her article, Guidelines for Working with Adult Learners:

Creating a learning environment that meets the needs of adult learners is a key element of successful adult education programs…One of the keys to establishing a successful program is the establishment of Adult-to-Adult Rapport. To build rapport with adults in the learning environment, use positive nonverbal communication, deal with the whole person, address learners as equals, share authority…and facilitate adult independence. Instructors can help adults assume more responsibility for their own learning by encouraging them to learn on their own, serving as a role model of an independent adult learner, and teaching decision-making and problem-solving techniques.

Additionally, many experts in the field of adult education feel that the goals of “sharing authority” and “facilitating adult independence,” is best achieved by the educator’s adoption of a “learner-centered” model of instruction. In her article, Imel notes that, “…known as the andragogical model, the use of learner-centered instruction — which supports addressing the needs and interests of learners — is regularly championed in the literature as the most effective way to teach adults.”

Another way in which an educator can facilitate a successful adult educational program is by being aware of the psychological pressures under which his or her students might sway. This can include the creation of an effective environment in which the student feels secure in a way that fosters learning. Imel writes:

Support for adult learners is provided through a learning environment that meets both their physical and psychological needs. Such a learning environment is also an essential element in successful partnerships between learners and instructors. Developing an atmosphere in which adults feel both safe and challenged should be the goal (Cranton 1989; Rogers 1989; Vella 1994). Any anxieties learners might have about appearing foolish or exposing themselves to failure should be eased, but they should not feel so safe that they do not question their current assumptions or are not challenged in other ways. Instructors need to balance being friendly with challenging learners (Rogers 1989).

Again, the importance of the educator’s willingness to take these psychological considerations into account when conducting a particular course is just as important when utilizing distance or online teaching methods. After all, an instructor can be every bit as self-centered, threatening, and dictatorial via email or web-cam as he or she can be in person.

Technology and the Adult Learner

Perhaps one of the most ironic aspects of adult education is the increasing trend of distance/internet-based instruction aimed toward that demographic. To be certain, this trend is due to the tremendous ease in which the technology of Internet instruction can (at least in theory) be incorporated into the average adult learner’s busy life.

Because of the fact that most adult learners are unable to assume the role of the full-time student, and must, in many cases, balance already full lives of work, family, and social obligations with their educational goals, many are drawn to the concept of technologically-aided education. The unfortunate truth, however, is that the same student who is drawn to the possibility of technology as a medium in which he or she might succeed in obtaining their education, often feels a tremendous anxiety when contemplating the actual use of the various technologies involved.

Further, specific drawbacks to the use of technology in distance learning capacities have been identified by experts in the field. According to Sandra Kerka, in the article, Distance Learning, the Internet, and the World Wide Web:

As with any medium, there are disadvantages…Reliance on learner initiative can be a drawback for those who prefer more structure. Learner success also depends on technical skills in computer operation and Internet navigation, as well as the ability to cope with technical difficulties. Information overload is also an issue; the volume of e-mail messages to read, reflect on, and respond to can be overwhelming, and the proliferation of databases and websites demands information management skills. Access to the Internet is still a problem for some rural areas and people with disabilities. Social isolation can be a drawback, and the lack of nonverbal cues can hinder communication. Although the Internet can promote active learning, some contend that, like television, it can breed passivity (Filipczak 1995).

Similarly, many educators argue that technology-based classrooms are inferior to the traditional classroom model because of its lack of a perceived “learning community.” However, several others have answered that this is simply not the case, and that a virtual community can be created that is every bit as effective as the traditional model:

Answering charges that computer learning environments cannot duplicate the community of the classroom, Cook (1995) argues that the assumption of a sense of community in traditional classrooms may be false. If community is defined as shared interests, not geographic space, electronic communities are possible. Wiesenberg and Hutton (1995) conclude that building a learning community is of critical importance to the creation of a successful virtual classroom. Dede (1996) agrees that “to succeed, distributed learning must balance virtual and direct interaction in sustaining communion among people” (p. 199).

In actual practice, the adult educator can take several steps to ensure the avoidance of the possible pitfalls of Internet instruction. These steps can include practical instruction in the methods of Internet use and information gathering practices (both to increase ease of use as well as the confidence of students), developing an understanding of the inherent weaknesses of using technology to transmit information and ideas in an educational setting, the creation of a plan for dealing with possible technical problems, a willingness to incorporate visual (web-cam) or video material as a part of instruction, and the inclusion of group activities that foster interaction among learners, even if those activities are conducted online.

Ethical Issues

The concept of ethics, or the need for the development of a “code of ethics” in the adult education field is a controversial one. Indeed, different groups and individuals disagree as to whether such a code is necessary, feasible, or even useful. One reason that is often given for this controversy is the ambiguity inherent in the field of education, itself. For example, many specific situations in adult education practice are not only ambiguous, but involve contradictory values that do not lend themselves to standardized principles, codes or solutions.

However, although the field may not lend itself to a traditional “code” of set ethical standards, an alternate model of an ethical system has been suggested whereby the individual educator incorporates the three aspects of personal values, consciousness of multiple responsibilities, and a perception of practical values into a kind of ethical system. In short, this means that the individual combines his or her own beliefs concerning their personal values with an awareness of his or her responsibility to others as an adult educator. These ideas, pared with the final component, which requires the individual to ask themselves, “How do I put my values into practice,” provide a kind of ethical environment under which one might then consider the questions of respect, justice, obligation to clients, beneficence, caring, and self-awareness.

The specific ways in which this ethical environment becomes necessary can be illustrated by the dilemmas common to adult education — dilemmas that range from conflicts of personal value systems with student needs, a clash of preferred teaching methodologies/style with the actual needs of students, and the conflict of the educator’s other responsibilities with their commitment to adult education, to name a few.

Conclusion

Adult education involves complex issues surrounding learning styles, processes, and characteristics. The very complexity of the study of the field of adult learning underscores this fact. Adult students not only face unique challenges as a group in so called “traditional” learning settings, but in the newer technologically-driven milieu as well.

Educators must be aware of the fact that adults using Internet education technology are not only affected by the traditional issues in the field of adult learning, but are also faced with significant magnification of any psychological difficulties they may suffer as a result of sociocultural influences. Indeed, when adult learners use the Internet as a tool — or as a complete learning environment, they not only benefit from its supposed convenience, but they can also suffer from its cultural, societal, and practical implications as well. These issues must be viewed collectively, for general learner/adult education studies must be considered as a whole together with the added factors of “distance,” and possible technological intimidation.

Indeed, there are several ways in which educators can incorporate knowledge of adult learning characteristics into the technology-based classroom format — for almost all of these overriding characteristics can not only be accommodated, but, in many cases, can be better accommodated within the distance learning system. After all, characteristics like self-directedness and autonomy can be right at home at the helm of a good computer.

It is clear, however, that it is absolutely essential for educators to have a good understanding of the pitfalls of the adult learner, and how the Internet format can magnify those shortcomings to the detriment of the student’s education — for the merits of autonomy, reliance on experience, and insistence on complete practicality can quickly turn into narrowness, inflexibility, and abandonment of the (necessary) realm of theory and “idea.” It is this understanding that makes all the difference, for it is the educator’s responsibility to guide the student, whether he or she is in front of the podium, or personified by the text on the computer screen. http://fcis.oise.utoronto.ca/~daniel_schugurensky/faqs/qa9.html.

Dirkx, J.M. & Prenger, S. (1995) Planning and implementing integrated theme-based instruction: A curriculum guide and resource book. University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Nebraska Institute for the Study of Adult Literacy

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Fenwick, Tara. Rethinking Processes of Adult Learning. Web site: http://www.ualberta.ca/~tfenwick/ext/pubs/adultlearning.htm.

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Imel, Susan. Guidelines for Working with Adult Learners. http://www.ericfacility.net/databases/ERIC_Digests/ed299456.html

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We have highlighted some of the most popular subjects we handle above. Those are just a tip of the iceberg. We deal in all academic disciplines since our writers are as diverse. They have been drawn from across all disciplines, and orders are assigned to those writers believed to be the best in the field. In a nutshell, there is no task we cannot handle; all you need to do is place your order with us. As long as your instructions are clear, just trust we shall deliver irrespective of the discipline.

Are your writers competent enough to handle my paper?

Our essay writers are graduates with bachelor's, masters, Ph.D., and doctorate degrees in various subjects. The minimum requirement to be an essay writer with our essay writing service is to have a college degree. All our academic writers have a minimum of two years of academic writing. We have a stringent recruitment process to ensure that we get only the most competent essay writers in the industry. We also ensure that the writers are handsomely compensated for their value. The majority of our writers are native English speakers. As such, the fluency of language and grammar is impeccable.

What if I don’t like the paper?

There is a very low likelihood that you won’t like the paper.

Reasons being:

• When assigning your order, we match the paper’s discipline with the writer’s field/specialization. Since all our writers are graduates, we match the paper’s subject with the field the writer studied. For instance, if it’s a nursing paper, only a nursing graduate and writer will handle it. Furthermore, all our writers have academic writing experience and top-notch research skills.
• We have a quality assurance that reviews the paper before it gets to you. As such, we ensure that you get a paper that meets the required standard and will most definitely make the grade.

In the event that you don’t like your paper:

• The writer will revise the paper up to your pleasing. You have unlimited revisions. You simply need to highlight what specifically you don’t like about the paper, and the writer will make the amendments. The paper will be revised until you are satisfied. Revisions are free of charge
• We will have a different writer write the paper from scratch.
• Last resort, if the above does not work, we will refund your money.

Will the professor find out I didn’t write the paper myself?

Not at all. All papers are written from scratch. There is no way your tutor or instructor will realize that you did not write the paper yourself. In fact, we recommend using our assignment help services for consistent results.

What if the paper is plagiarized?

We check all papers for plagiarism before we submit them. We use powerful plagiarism checking software such as SafeAssign, LopesWrite, and Turnitin. We also upload the plagiarism report so that you can review it. We understand that plagiarism is academic suicide. We would not take the risk of submitting plagiarized work and jeopardize your academic journey. Furthermore, we do not sell or use prewritten papers, and each paper is written from scratch.

When will I get my paper?

You determine when you get the paper by setting the deadline when placing the order. All papers are delivered within the deadline. We are well aware that we operate in a time-sensitive industry. As such, we have laid out strategies to ensure that the client receives the paper on time and they never miss the deadline. We understand that papers that are submitted late have some points deducted. We do not want you to miss any points due to late submission. We work on beating deadlines by huge margins in order to ensure that you have ample time to review the paper before you submit it.

Will anyone find out that I used your services?

We have a privacy and confidentiality policy that guides our work. We NEVER share any customer information with third parties. Noone will ever know that you used our assignment help services. It’s only between you and us. We are bound by our policies to protect the customer’s identity and information. All your information, such as your names, phone number, email, order information, and so on, are protected. We have robust security systems that ensure that your data is protected. Hacking our systems is close to impossible, and it has never happened.

How our Assignment  Help Service Works

1.      Place an order

You fill all the paper instructions in the order form. Make sure you include all the helpful materials so that our academic writers can deliver the perfect paper. It will also help to eliminate unnecessary revisions.

2.      Pay for the order

Proceed to pay for the paper so that it can be assigned to one of our expert academic writers. The paper subject is matched with the writer’s area of specialization.

3.      Track the progress

You communicate with the writer and know about the progress of the paper. The client can ask the writer for drafts of the paper. The client can upload extra material and include additional instructions from the lecturer. Receive a paper.

4.      Download the paper

The paper is sent to your email and uploaded to your personal account. You also get a plagiarism report attached to your paper.

PLACE THIS ORDER OR A SIMILAR ORDER WITH US TODAY AND GET A PERFECT SCORE!!!

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