Articles

In this thought-provoking piece, Randy Bowman challenges the growing expectation that adult educators must catalyze personal or societal transformation. Instead, he makes the case for a humbler, learner-centered approach, one where standards support, not steer, the journey. By reframing the educator’s role from catalyst to companion, Bowman explores how well-designed standards can honor autonomy, respect learner goals, and still uphold quality and fairness.

Learners are often left out of the conversations that shape their education—treated as recipients, not stakeholders. This blog explores how the IACET Standard ensures learners have a seat at the table by centering intentionality, measurable outcomes, and meaningful engagement. It challenges providers to go beyond compliance and embrace a model that respects learners’ time, goals, and trust. Whether learners know to ask for quality or not, IACET’s approach guarantees they receive it.

Take a journey with me into the mind of an adult learner. As if we were a microbial sized vehicle reminiscent of the one in 1966 movie Fantastic Voyage.  As we journey through the body and enter the learner’s mind, we see a massive network of interconnected pathways all lit by electrical charges moving back and forth across the network.  From your knowledge of the mind, you know that when these electrical charges are firing from one place to another, something is happening in the person’s mind and it could very well be learning.

Virtual learning environments will be just as beneficial for adults as they are for kids. In fact, there’s a good chance that nearly every adult will engage in some sort of virtual education in the next fifteen years. I’m not talking about virtual higher education or continuing education courses, as awesome as those will be. Instead, I’m talking about training and how something that is often the bane of our professional lives might soon be one of its most exciting aspects.