Our purpose here is to provide an overview of the cognitive and socioemotional changes associated with aging and to propose ways that these changes can be accommodated in a technology-based training environment. We recommend that technology-based training for older adults should: (1) be highly structured, (2) provide feedback and adaptive guidance, (3) include metacognitive prompts, (4) incorporate principles derived from cognitive load theory and cognitive theory of multimedia learning, and (5) include a user interface that is simple and consistent throughout the course. With a focus on organizations as well as business schools, we then discuss contextual variables expected to enhance older learners' training motivation or improve their transfer of training. Finally, we will recommend areas worthy of exploration that might reveal age-specific differences in technology-based instruction (TBI) design.
This chapter describes methods of assessing the learning needs and evaluating the development of individuals within the context of a lifelong learning support system. Because lifelong learning is self-directed and informal in nature, we propose a needs assessment and evaluation design that is customized by participant. Participants are first assessed on various organizationally-relevant as well as lifelong-learning-relevant competencies and then linked, in a matrix format, to lifelong learning opportunities within and outside the organization that suit their competency needs. We then propose that, as learners engage in lifelong learning activities, they be periodically evaluated in terms of their improvement along different competencies. This information can be used to modify individuals’ lifelong learning program as well as, on the aggregate level, to inform decisions about how to allocate organizational resources and to provide evidence to support the system.
The latter finding (that advance organizers had differential effects on older and younger adults) suggests that perhaps there is a need for age-specific instructional formats. Future researchers should further explore whether and how age affects the learning process by examining the effect of different design principles on learning outcomes of older and younger adults.
Britt, Shen, Sinclair, Grossman, and Klieger (2016) draw attention to issues in the psychological literature regarding how we define, assess, select for, and build employee resilience. We offer a handful of recommendations for complementing and expanding on these important issues. Specifically, we propose that research should include more common forms of workplace adversity, versus extreme and rare types of adversity; resilience should be assessed via objective multirater methodology rather than subjective self-report; because context is important when studying resilience, researchers should delineate the purposes of the research; resilience should be treated as a malleable rather than a fixed characteristic; and finally, the field would benefit from qualitative research in addition to quantitative research.
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