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COVID-19 AND ONLINE ADULT EDUCATION: A COMPARATIVE STUDY

Inga Jekabsone

First published: 2022https://doi.org/10.35603/sws.iscss.2022/s08.080View metrics

Abstract

Covid-19 had tremendously affected the way how people learn. As a general tendency, the sector of adult education has transformed towards digitization offering a wide range of online adult education programmes, including in geosciences. Due to the Covid-19 related restrictions, educational institutions offering adult education programmes were forced to develop their strategies on how to adapt to the new reality. Within this study, a comparative analysis of three adult education institutions representing Latvia, Poland and Sweden is conducted. All three case studies present different approaches to the implementation of online adult education. The paper aims to analyse the approaches of three different adult education institutions to adapt to the pandemics focusing on the concept of online adult education. Used research methods: scientific literature review, expert interviews, statistical analysis. The main findings of the research show that all three adult education institutions used different strategies to adapt to the Covid-19-related restrictions. The digital skills of adult learners are the main factor that affected the strategies of analysed adult education institutions. Low digital skills are the main factor that hinders the development of online adult education. However, at the same time, the research has demonstrated the advantages of online learning and its growing role in the future of adult education.

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Publication details

Title
COVID-19 AND ONLINE ADULT EDUCATION: A COMPARATIVE STUDY
Authors
Inga Jekabsone
Proceedings
Proceedings of 9th SWS International Scientific Conference on Social Sciences - ISCSS 2022
Publisher
SGEM WORLD SCIENCE (SWS) Scholarly Society
Year
2022
Pages
685-692
SWS Citekey
Jekabsone2022685692
ISSN
2682-9959
ISBN
978-3-903438-04-0
Language
en
Publication type
Proceedings Paper
Keywords
adult educationonline learningCovid-19comparative study
References12

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