The increase in the number of adults returning to complete their university education as ‘non-traditional students’ brings more attention to the challenges of a standard degree format. This paper examines the experiences of seven non-traditional students undergoing a cooperative education programme in Singapore, where students would alternate spending a few days in a week at a university while working full-time for the remaining days, in relation to the challenges and opportunities of the programme. Using qualitative thematic analysis, we discovered four themes greatly affected by the programme design – motivations for enrolling, transferability of knowledge, work–study balance and coping mechanisms. Overall, some obstacles hindering adults from continuing education were addressed by this cooperative education programme. The strong integration of work and study roles ensured that adults did not need to leave their job before starting university, reducing time and money-related pressures while increasing their commitment level to education. Additionally, rigid institutional practices were mitigated by the flexibility given by teaching faculty and work supervisors. We suggested several improvements to better suit the rising number of adults wanting to attain a degree. With the research results and recommendations proposed herein, this paper is useful to various universities willing to adopt cooperative education.
ObjectivesThe Augmented Reality Games to Enhance Vocational Ability of Patients (REAP) was an augmented reality vocational training program that provided skills training in the context of a psychiatric rehabilitation program. It was implemented over 10 weeks and consisted of gamified augmented reality café training scenarios and bridging group activities to facilitate transfer of learning to the work context. This pilot study aimed to explore the acceptability and effectiveness of the REAP program when carried out with adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities attending work therapy. Its objectives were: (1) to obtain feedback from participants and trainers on their experiences and acceptability of the REAP program and (2) to measure changes in vocational and cognitive skills of participants in the REAP program.Materials and methodsThis was a pretest–posttest mixed methods study. 15 adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities attending work therapy in a non-profit organization participated in the REAP program and their vocational trainers were involved in assisting in this program. Feasibility Evaluation Checklist (FEC) and the Neurobehavioral Cognitive Status Exam (Cognistat) were administered at baseline, post-training and eight weeks after training. The participants and their trainers also provided user feedback via semi-structured interviews.ResultsMajority of the participants and trainers found the REAP program to be useful and interesting. They also found that the augmented reality games were user-friendly and provided a unique opportunity to acquire new skills. Participants who engaged in this program showed a significant improvement in vocational skills and aspects of cognitive skills, which were maintained eight weeks after training.ConclusionThe gamified augmented reality vocational training was feasible and accepted by both adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their trainers. When integrated with bridging sessions to facilitate transfer of learning to existing work therapy, participants on the REAP program showed significant improvements in vocational skills and aspects of cognitive skills. Future experimental studies with larger sample size could provide stronger evidence on its effectiveness in improving vocational outcomes.
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