Chapter 8: The Lived Experience of Graduates of An Adult Accelerated Degree Program

In 2007-2008, over 40% of students enrolled in undergraduate programs in the United States were 24 years of age and older, and approximately 65% of this group worked 35 hours a week or more while attending school (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2007). The needs of these learners are often different from the traditional 18- to 22-year old college student. A variety of options are offered by universities to accommodate the adult learner. One of these options is accelerated courses.

Accelerated courses are college-level courses delivered with less time in the classroom than a traditional course, providing less time for instruction. For example, a traditional course that meets for an entire semester might meet three times per week for an hour over a 15-week period for a total of 45 classroom instruction hours, and an accelerated course might meet for 5 or 8 weeks, one session per week, for 4 hours. In this case, the accelerated courses would provide 20 or 32 hours of in-class instruction (Johnson, 2009; Wlodkowski, 2003).