Adult Education Research on Digitalisation

Digitalisation is profoundly transforming adult and continuing education in teaching, in institutions, in education policy, and not least in research. This book provides a comprehensive overview of current academic work on this transformation and shows how digital technologies open up new opportunities, but also what challenges and risks they bring. The first part is devoted to the teaching and learning level. Based on current research findings, it illustrates how Artificial Intelligence (AI), Virtual Reality and digital educational offerings are changing adult/continuing education. The potential of digital learning formats is presented, but also the ethical, data protection and didactic questions that arise. The second part focuses on institutions, educational offerings and societal framework conditions. The contributions examine the use of digital platforms in the health sector, the influence of social media on political education, the design requirements for media-supported programmes, as well as questions of governance under the conditions of digitality. The third part illuminates theoretical and research-methodological questions on a meta-level. Topics discussed include competency requirements for dealing with generative AI, new questions in the context of digitalisation research, conditions for successful exchange between research and practice, as well as methodological approaches to analysing AI use in adult learning. With these contributions, this volume offers a multi-layered and current picture of how the digital transformation is shaping adult education in Germany and which perspectives and questions are significant in this context. It is aimed at academics who deal with the effects of digitalisation on adult education in an international context and who are interested in current research and theoretical developments.