Faculty Support for Adult Learners in Online First-Year Experience Courses: A Descriptive Qualitative Study

Online education has increased in popularity over the last few decades due to the enrollment of adult learners. Adult learners have challenges with returning to school. It is not known what resources and support faculty need to support adult learners taking online first-year experience courses (FYE). The purpose of this general descriptive qualitative inquiry study was to describe how faculty will be able to support first-year experience adult learners in an online environment that will positively impact student retention and institutional goals. This study utilized Anderson’s Online Learning Model (2011) as a framework. This study sought to answer how prepared faculty feel in teaching online FYE courses to adult learners and what support educational leaders can provide to faculty to better support the facilitation of these courses. Fifteen online first-year experience faculty were recruited and individually interviewed for this study. Utilizing a thematic analysis, the following themes emerged: (1) FYE courses are beneficial to students, (2) faculty are motivated to teach online FYE courses, (3) faculty preparation to teach, (4) it takes a village, and (5) collaboration and support from educational leadership. The results showed that faculty need course-specific training to better support students, opportunities to collaborate with colleagues teaching the same course for support, and more opportunities to engage with educational leadership.