Skip to main content

Adult Students as Customers and the Virtual Space

While reading this article by Kietzmann et al. (2011), I realized the extent to which their final words apply to students in adult education programs. They point out that customers are practically tired of being talked at and instead they want companies to listen to them. Adult students are customers within the framework of community schools and they are waiting to get engaged in conversation with each other and their school. 

If such conversations never take place, it is likely because of the organization's lack of understanding of how social media platforms operate. To solve this problem, the authors of the article offer advice in the form of the four Cs: cognize, congruity, curate, and chase.

According to the authors, every social media platform consists of seven components: identity, conversations, sharing, presence, relationships, reputation and groups. They function in a unique combination based on the nature of each platform. For example, LinkedIn might rely heavily on its users' identities, while YouTube focuses mainly on content sharing. Facebook is built around its users' relationships. 

In order to build a successful conversation with their students, community schools should recognize the functionality pattern of the social media platform that their students use. This will help them understand the students and their needs better. Then, they should ensure congruity between stakeholders' goals and the selected platform's pattern of operation. Next, the schools must curate the content and recognize the right opportunities for conversations. Finally, conversations should be followed if not chased and evaluated.Photo Credit: Google Gemini/Nano Banana 2

Comments

  1. VanessaMay 19, 2026 at 10:20 AM

    Yes, conversation! It's an important concept. Companies like to throw around the word community, but people tend to not feel a part of a community until they are actually engaged in conversation with that community (and it can just be a small part of it -- going from no one to talk to at a university to 2 conversation partners in a class or a friendly staff member they can talk to can make a meaningful difference in one's perception of belonging).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Maria HMay 19, 2026 at 2:47 PM

      So true! Conversation fosters the development of a sense of belonging; a sense of community evolves from feeling that one belongs. In my experience, these go hand in hand with improved learning outcomes.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Blogging as a Low-Stakes Writing Tool in Adult Esol Classroom

Writing is traditionally the least enjoyed part of adult English classes. While much of the time is devoted to listening and reading skills, and some, although not enough, to speaking, writing is often left neglected. However, writing is more than just a mechanical stringing of words into sentences, which often creates anxiety. It supports critical thinking and problem-solving skills, grammar and spelling development, and metalinguistic awareness.  Most adult learners experience language writing anxiety even when they type a sentence in a chat box. The fear of making mistakes can be paralyzing for some students. The irony is that their desire to be perfect too quickly often slows their learning trajectory. If we want to lower our students' affective filter, they must experience low-stakes practice on a regular basis.   Blogging seems to be one of the least threatening solutions to the problem of teaching writing. First, it offers learners greater control over thei...
2 comments
Read more

Can Digital Badges Usher in a New Era of Adult Education?

If you are interested in implementing micro-credentials in your teaching, be sure to read this article by Dennen, Arslan, and Bong (2024), in which the authors discuss the implementation process of micro-learning challenges at a large public university in the United States and their subsequent findings. In short, microlearning is a way of enabling a learner (student) to self-direct their learning through accomplishing small-scale educational challenges, which then earn them digital badges.  One of the findings was the fact that those students who earned their badges did so because of their educational, rather than "bragging" value. Additionally, because micro-challenges were optional, only a portion of students (about 21%) achieved digital badges.  As a teacher of IET (Integrated Education and Training) Introduction to Healthcare, I can see potential in using micro-challenges in adult workforce education. As the authors state, students recognized that by accomplishing micro-...
2 comments
Read more

Reddit Challenge

Most of this week I spent on Reddit. The main takeaway from this excursion is that Reddit is a universe of its own. It is like a living organism bursting with human thoughts and ideas. it can also become a final resting place of some ideas. (I thought I also saw a couple of bot posts.) Here is my reply to the challenge: Part 1: Finding Spaces Academic/professional interests: r/AdultEducation Personal hobby: r/HomeImprovement Surprise: r/AmIOverreacting Very strict rules: r/NeutralPolitics Very minimal rules: r/AskReddit    Part 2: Deep Dive on a subreddit One rule that shapes what can be posted on a subreddit is adhering to the topic and having a fair purpose (e.g. r/Canvas). One example that follows the rule well:     One example that breaks the rules:    Part 3: Highly upvoted post: r/Teachers ; It's going to get worse, isn't it? The reason for the upvote is the teacher rant, sounding sort of exasperated.  Picture of the last portion of the post...
1 comment
Read more