"Designed for Adult Learners" Is a Silly Claim

I've been browsing university websites for online undergraduate programs and have come across more than a few times a claim like this: our programs are designed with the adult learner in mind. Compelling, but I think kind of silly at the same time. 

The concept of andragogy, Malcolm Knowles' framework for how adults learn differently than children, does offer useful principles that should be considered by any university expecting to enroll adults in its online programs. And an instructional designer who approaches their work with those principles in mind is doing better work for you than one who doesn't. But the silliness emerges when we acknowledge that instructional designers don't actually design programs. They design courses within programs, and those programs live inside institutional structures that were built for 18-22 year old students. Credit hours, prerequisites, gen ed cores... it's all baked in long before an ID touches the content. I've seen IDs conceptualize beautifully andragogic learning activities only to watch a faculty member replace them with a timed quiz because that's what they've always done. And even if a designer gets everything right, the majority of adult learners don't arrive ready for the kind of autonomous, self-directed learning that andragogy assumes. They often need more scaffolding, not less. Designing purely for autonomy fails these students just as badly as treating them like passive recipients.

A more defensible framing is to suggest that a well-designed online undergraduate program can be more andragogically informed than a traditional one. It can offer meaningful choices, connect content to real-world problems, explain the "why" transparently, and validate what learners already know. That's genuinely valuable, but it's not the same as claiming the program was designed for adult learners as if andragogy has been fully implemented end to end. When a university makes that claim, it's being more than slightly disingenuous. Adult students who enroll on the basis of that promise and then encounter rigid structures, irrelevant assessments, and no flexibility will notice the gap quickly. That will breed frustration and attrition.

Universities need to be telling prospective adult students that they've built flexible pacing, problem-based projects, transparent learning rationale, and opportunities to connect coursework to their own professional experience. Vague promises about being designed for adults sound good in a brochure and briefings to the board, but they set an expectation the institution almost certainly can't meet.