Continuing Education at Colleges

Continuing education consists of educational programs, usually non-credit courses, offered by colleges and universities to adults in the community usually during the evening and on weekends (National Education Association 1). Merrian and Caffarella (1,72) report that continuing education should be considered an element of adult education which, the authors note, differs from that of the education of children in several ways, the most important of which is that continuing education offers learning that is based on existing accumulated knowledge and experience. It is further noted that continuing education in institutions of higher learning most frequently require that adults apply their knowledge in some practical fashion in order to learn effectively.

The purpose of this paper is to speculate on the future of continuing higher education. The paper first examines factors that are expected to affect future policies and programs in continuing higher education. This is followed by an exploration of trends arising from these factors and their extrapolation into the future.

Factors Affecting the Shape of Continuing Higher Education

The University of Continuing Education Association (1) reports that several factors are going to be placing pressure and demands on continuing higher education. The first of these factors is said to be an expansion of the fields and sub-fields offered by colleges an

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access and take all of their courses online. Support services are also available online and students can participate in discussions as well as activities with the online staff, faculty and other students. The virtual campus has been discussed by The Electronic Learning Institute (1-2) which states that the virtual campus allows the college or university, in terms of its continuing education, to shift from being geographically specific and program diversified to being program specific and geographically diversified. It also utilizes information technology for the purpose of freeing the instructional process from restraints and constraints associated with place and time since instruction can be delivered on demand. As The Electronic Institute (1) puts it: For the first time an institution can offer their alumni and other learners important continuing education opportunities while making it possible for those learners to stay at home with their families, jobs, and responsibilities. For the alumnus this means greater opportunities to continue a learning affiliation with their institution of higher education while significantly increasing revenues for the institution. Finally the University of Continuing Education (1) points out tha
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Approximate Word count = 2216
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)