The distance learning environment has a major contribution to make to the educational requirements of the 21st century by encouraging the acceptance of lifelong learning (LLL). Keeping pace with changes in technology and meeting the increasing demands of the knowledge based economy requires a highly skilled and educated workforce. The solution would then have to be to foster educational opportunities which would invariably lead to continuing education through the concept of LLL. Avenues would then point to integrated elearning with its egalitarian environment of open access and greater opportunities for the learners particularly the adult learners. The integrated e-learning opportunities would be able to satisfy the students’ need for convenient offerings and at the same time maximize the use of online teaching technologies, facilities and resources reducing presence in a classroom environment. Arguably traditional classroom methods present an important presence in the teaching-learning process but the use of technology presents the challenges of the future. Technology has now integrated into higher education and this paper attempts to explore the opportunities and challenges that online learning in general and Open University Malaysia in particular face in implementing lifelong learning to cater to the adult learners. (Abstract by author)

Most research about prior learning assessment (PLA) has focused on the practice of PLA from institutional perspectives and not on the experience of PLA from the learner's perspective. Knowledge about the impact of PLA on learners is important in designing PLA courses and teaching methods. This study developed a substantive theory regarding what aspects of the PLA process foster changes in adult learners by examining their perspectives on their own change processes in the context of a portfolio course. The study sought to determine what changes are experienced by adult learners who participate in a portfolio course for prior learning assessment, and which aspects of the portfolio course are perceived to cause the change.

Data were gathered from 3 sources for each of 12 adult learners in 2 bachelor's degree programs for adult learners at a liberal arts college: interviews, portfolios, and learning journals. The substantive theory that emerged suggested 4 components of the portfolio course as most central to adult learners' experience of change: (a) a model for reflecting on and articulating learning from experience, including surfacing tacit knowledge, trying on multiple perspectives, and questioning assumptions; (b) a narrative (draft-redraft) writing process that fosters objectification of experience; (c) exposure to other perspectives, especially one's peers; and (d) a mentor who provides encouragement and challenge. The substantive theory links PLA practice with conceptual frameworks for PLA reflected in the literature: experiential learning and reflective practice, transformative learning, adult constructive development, and critical social theory. Prior learning assessment appears to foster changes in some adult learners' awareness of and ability to examine their own perspectives, awareness of their learning process, and awareness of others' perspectives.

Implications for PLA as a vehicle for social change include its potential for fostering learners' ability to question tacit assumptions and to take multiple perspectives, which would enable them to engage more effectively in an increasingly complex, ambiguous, and diverse global society. Recommendations included making transformative learning and developmental change an intentional goal rather than a side-benefit of PLA in programs for adult learners. (Author's abstract)

The mission of New Horizons in Adult Education and Human Resource Development is to promote all aspects of practice and research that explore issues of individual, group, and organizational learning, wherever they may be located and focuses on current research and ideas in adult education, human resource development, and related fields. We are interested in honoring work done in urban, suburban, rural, and international contexts.

Examines the outcomes of engaging in self-rating and assessment as perceived by students of an adult learning program. Emergence of fifteen themes representing specific outcomes of self-assessment from an inductive analysis of data; Indications that self-assessment serves as a powerful instrument for experiential learning.

A scholarly journal with a practical intent devoted to improving the efforts of adult educators working with low-literate, educationally disadvantaged, and educationally oppressed people.

E-journal consist of academic articles and book reviews about research and theory in adult continuing education.

A series of thematic journals exploring issues of common interest to instructors, administrators, counselors and policy makers in a broad range of adult and continuing education settings

Offers five key principles for assessment of adult learning. Commonly held premises from which these principles are derived; Illustrations of assessment practices in different locations in the United States; What adult-oriented assessment suggests.