MOTIVATED TO ENROLL: AN EXAMINATION OF ADULT LEARNERS' ONLINE GRADUATE PROGRAM DECISION FACTORS AND UNIVERSITY ENGAGEMENT STRATEGIES

<p dir="ltr">Online education has opened new possibilities for universities to engage with adult learners seeking to pursue a graduate degree by lifting the restrictions of physical distance and providing greater flexibility. Adult learners are often constrained by personal factors such as work and family commitments that can make it challenging for them to pursue their educational goals. Previous research has highlighted the importance of factors such as affordability, career/content relevance, proximity to campus, and institutional brand to adult learners when selecting an educational opportunity that is right for them. Leveraging the foundations of adult learning theory as a theoretical framework, this research explored the extent to which these factors influence their decision-making process. An online survey was conducted of 300 participants who had already completed an undergraduate degree and were interested in pursuing a master’s degree online to assess their attitudes toward these key decision criteria. The resulting quantitative analysis indicated that adult learners did not place a significant emphasis on proximity to campus and a slightly more favorable degree of importance on institutional brand. However, the factors of career relevance, affordability, and quality stood out as key to this group. Through these findings, universities can better understand how to target their marketing efforts to support this group in their decision-making process, tailor their engagement efforts to topics relevant to them, and expand the scope of potential geographies that can be reached by their online programs.</p>