Understanding Persistence: Lessons Learned from a Decade of Teaching Adult Learners in an Online First-Year Course

“Educators play a crucial role in modeling presence and empathy, creating predictable learning environments, and giving feedback that promotes growth rather than judgment.”

When I first began teaching a required, 3-credit first-year course for undergraduate adult learners in fully online, accelerated 8-week programs, I primarily saw the course as a bridge to help new students orient themselves to the university and related systems. Ten years and more than 50 sections later, the course became a mirror of how adult learners persist as they return to higher education, revealing what supports make persistence possible.

At one point during those years, I found myself on the other side of the screen as an adult learner balancing full-time work and family responsibilities. Experiencing online learning firsthand deepened my empathy and informed my teaching. Logging in late at night after grading reminded me that persistence depends not only on motivation but also on structure, flexibility, and support. That perspective made me more intentional about designing a course that felt adaptable to the unpredictability of adult life.

The first-year course is widely recognized as a high-impact practice that fosters engagement, belonging, and academic self-efficacy. Yet when courses are fully online and condensed into 8 weeks, the very characteristics that make the seminar “high impact” must be reimagined. The purpose of this reflection is to share what a decade of teaching adult learners in online first-year courses has taught me about designing for persistence by building early readiness and confidence, fostering self-regulation and connection, and resulting implications for adult learners, educators, and program leaders.

Building Early Readiness and Confidence

In those early years, I learned that structure and presence matter most. The course followed weekly cycles of reflection, planning, and application, with tasks such as developing a time-management plan or meeting with an academic advisor. However, early iterations revealed that technology was the first and most significant barrier. Many students lacked confidence in navigating the learning management system, uploading assignments, or participating in online asynchronous and synchronous discussions. Technology proficiency was closely intertwined with online learning self-efficacy. As Zimmerman and Kulikowich (2016) found, learners’ belief in their ability to function effectively in an online environment strongly influences persistence. Likewise, in my own research on nontraditional learners (Stephen, 2023), self-efficacy consistently emerged as foundational. For many adults, mastering the technology of learning was their first act of persistence.

To address this challenge, I designed a self-paced preparatory unit students completed before the first week of class, including guided instruction on online learning, hands-on tasks for testing technology tools, and early contact with the university’s IT Help Desk. I opened the course one week early, encouraging students to complete the unit in advance. By the time class began, most had resolved issues and felt confident navigating the course, leaving more time for learning. That redesign was a turning point. This early engagement fostered both technological and psychological readiness, allowing students to begin the accelerated term confident in their ability to succeed.

Fostering Self-Regulation and Connection

The global pandemic reshaped students’ relationship with technology. By the post-pandemic redesign, technology use had become normalized. Many learners were used to remote work, but time—not technology—became the greatest obstacle amid family and job demands. Students often described competing demands from work and family that left little space for study. These realities highlighted two constructs central to persistence: self-regulation and self-direction.

Across multiple iterations of the course, I observed that persistence was less about how much time adult learners had and more about how intentionally they structured the time available to them. Self-regulated learning involves goal setting, self-monitoring, and self-reflection (Stephen, 2023), processes reflected in how students established routines, scheduled study blocks, and broke large assignments into smaller goals to stay on pace in the accelerated term. These patterns reminded me that persistence often grows from structure, not circumstance, and that intentional design can help adult learners create the consistency their lives may not naturally provide.

Self-direction appeared in their willingness to seek help, a form of agency that sometimes conflicted with their strong sense of independence (Merriam & Bierema, 2014). Many adult learners take pride in solving problems on their own, and asking for help can feel uncomfortable. To normalize help-seeking, I created assignments that required virtual meetings with librarians, writing tutors, advisors, or career counselors. Although students initially viewed these as unnecessary, their feedback later confirmed the value of such activities. They described greater confidence in using support services and a stronger sense of connection to the university community. These reflections underscored that persistence is not a solitary act. Adult learners persist not only when they believe in their own ability but also when they feel connected to others who believe in them.

Over successive redesigns, I worked to ensure every element reinforced connection and relevance. Weekly announcements summarized progress and previewed upcoming topics. Feedback was individualized and growth oriented. Discussion prompts encouraged students to draw from professional and personal experiences to connect learning to life.

Student course evaluations consistently highlighted descriptors such as clear, organized, supportive, and motivating, qualities that echoed findings across adult learning and persistence research (Kahu & Nelson, 2018) and affirmed that clarity, structure, and connection are essential to sustaining engagement in online learning. These insights reinforced the need for a cohesive framework that could guide the ongoing design and facilitation of the course.

Building on this research and longitudinal data, I developed a contemporary persistence framework that identifies four dimensions essential to sustaining adult learners in online environments: clarity and structure, relevance and application, relational presence, and self-efficacy and agency (Stephen, 2023). This framework serves as the foundation for my approach to the first-year course, shaping how I design, facilitate, and evaluate learning experiences that promote persistence in accelerated programs.

In later iterations, I incorporated employability and career-readiness skills, drawing from earlier research (Stephen, 2023) emphasizing how communication, adaptability, and problem-solving bridge classroom learning and workplace success. Embedding these competencies helped students connect academic persistence to career development, reinforcing relevance as a powerful motivator.

Over time, I recognized that few resources addressed the needs of adult learners in accelerated online programs, as most first-year course materials still assumed traditional, campus-based contexts. To bridge that gap, I documented and refined strategies developed through teaching this course, later expanding them into a student-focused resource (Stephen, 2024). In doing so, I was reminded that design choices grounded in relevance, clarity, and support can profoundly shape adult learners’ persistence. These experiences underscored that persistence can be intentionally supported through design, facilitation, and program structure, an idea that continues to shape my work and informs the following implications for practice.

Implications for Adult Learners, Educators, and Program Leaders

These lessons carry important implications for adult learners, educators, and program leaders engaged in online learning design and support. A decade of teaching and iterative redesign has shown me that persistence is a shared responsibility among adult learners, educators, and institutions. For adult learners, persistence is shaped as much by design and environment as by motivation. Clear structure and transparent expectations help students feel confident and capable from the outset, while relevance ensures that learning connects meaningfully to their goals and experiences. When adult learners see how course concepts apply to their professional and personal contexts, engagement deepens, and motivation endures.

Educators play a crucial role in modeling presence and empathy, creating predictable learning environments, and giving feedback that promotes growth rather than judgment. Continuous redesign, informed by feedback and reflection, ensures that courses evolve to meet changing adult learner needs and technological contexts, reinforcing the sustained persistence that comes from relevance and responsiveness. Program leaders reinforce these efforts through institutional practices that prioritize accessible course design, proactive advising, and early, targeted orientation to online learning. When systems and instruction are aligned, students experience coherence rather than confusion, a condition essential for persistence.

Ultimately, connection sustains momentum. Adult learners persist when they feel supported by others who believe in their potential. Courses and programs that cultivate relational presence through meaningful instructor communication, peer interaction, and visible institutional support transform persistence from an individual struggle into a shared success.

As their instructor and once a fellow online adult student, I have learned that my role is not merely to teach strategies for success but to help students believe that success is possible. I invite fellow educators and program leaders to do the same by designing experiences that honor adult learners’ lives, remove unnecessary barriers, and cultivate the confidence that makes persistence possible.