Question:
On our campus, we have an atrocity called the "Adult Degree Program" which allows people over the age of 25 who have prior college experience to come and take classes and complete their degrees.

Naturally, being mature persons, they study much harder, and so the format of the classes is typically ONE 4-hour session per week for 6 weeks, (the last two hours of the last session being used for the final exam.) That makes 24 contact hours (including exam time) which is supposedly made up for by the diligence and extra, outside reading that adult learners do. (Of course, in my thinking, if these adult learners weren't already taken mostly from the bottom of the motivational barrel, then they wouldn't be walking around with an average age of 35 with incompleted degrees, eh?)

This makes for a small war on our campus. A literature course might adapt itself to such a format, since, indeed, adults may read a couple novels a week and in fact, having paid for the course themselves, might be a darn sight more willing to discuss (and having been kicked about by life a bit) might have a darn sight more input into a discussion.

But MATH? I don't think so. There's no way that _I_ can teach, say, College Algebra or Finite Math to a room full of adults getting their BA in Business who haven't seen a variable in a decade IN ONLY 6 SESSIONS and have the 6th session only be a Q&A period before the Final Exam.

That said, here's my request. Pretend like I'm my enemy and I'm gathering information to argue against me. Is there anyone out there who knows of a course like the one I'm refusing to teach? That is, a 3 hour freshman level math course taught for adult learners in such an accelerated format?

I really want to know, successful or not.

Answer:
The students must be motivated, and they will probably need more than your 6 weeks; try more like 12 weeks, as long as they have maintained some rigorous level of skill.

Look into university extension programs for possible parallels for what you have been asked to teach. An adult can go to a university extension course, but for math, some pre-requisite skill and knowledge will be necessary.


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