Across Generational Lines

There are currently four generations* involved in education -- with participants filling roles as instructors, administrators and support staff, and students. Those populating the generational categories have diverse world views, goals and values based in large part on their past experiences and the economic, political, social and technological climates they encountered on their path to adulthood. Not unexpectedly, tensions arise when the generations don’t understand each other. Institutions can diffuse tension by assisting individuals in learning about and appreciating differences among colleagues and between the institution’s educational providers and the student population. Institutions that achieve an effective balance among educational participants learn from each generation’s past experiences and understand the barriers encountered by members of the generational groups working and learning together.
Bridging the Generational Gap – Colleagues in the Workplace  There are some general approaches that can assist in bridging the gap between colleagues among faculty and administrators. For example:

• Know who you are talking to and which generational climate influenced them
• Learn to accept and appreciate others’ perspectives and approaches
• Learn to cut bureaucratic rules or to explain necessary policies and procedures
• Keep up with and use appropriate technology and tools
• Focus on mutual goals and make everyone feel included in the process

Bridging the Generational Gap – The Students  Not surprisingly, learning preferences are often tied to a student’s generational identification. Suggested approaches would include:

• First and foremost, know the make-up of your student body
• Design online courses with:
• goals/objectives of “knowing” plus “doing” leading to measurable change and growth
• multiple presentation formats, such as text and/or PowerPoint plus audio or video clips
• appropriate online case studies, labs, simulations, websites, etc. fostering active engagement and additional exploration of topics
• required discussion participation fostering active engagement
• relevant graphical icons and graphics  
• appropriate visual design for pages -- font, color, graphics, white space, “chunking,” etc.
• interactivity between students, instructor and students, and students and content
• development of a learning community and a visible instructor presence
• timely, supportive communication/feedback from instructor to students
• clear, redundant (Syllabus, announcements, emails) guidance on policy and procedure, grading rubrics, deadlines and consequences, submission procedures, participation, online etiquette, plagiarism, obtaining assistance (technical and course content), etc.
• authentic, multiple (portfolio) approaches to student assessment
• attention paid to “interactional,” procedural and outcome “fairness”
• attention paid to the multiple “emotions” that students bring to the online environment

In Conclusion
We ignore generational differences between colleagues or between educational providers and students at our own risk. One challenge we face is how to work together as faculty, administrators and staff across generational divides. In the student realm, many educators routinely stress that the learning process should be “meaningful” or “authentic” but fail to take into account how to achieve these objectives for a diverse student body. A second challenge we face is how educational providers can effectively engage and teach students across generational divides. The opportunities, of course, allow us to learn from others’ experiences and employ creative and effective approaches to providing educational experiences that are rewarding both to the providers and to the learners. What is the situation at your institution? Are there programs in place to deal with the generational divide?
* Note that the names given the generations may differ and also that the dates given may differ by a few years for any generation. You may also find that some materials reference “Twixters” or “Cuspers,” those who fall within a couple of years on either side of a dividing year. These individuals will likely display traits of two generations.
Traditionalists (Silent Generation) born 1925 to1942-45
Baby Boomers (Boomers) born 1943-46 to 1960-64
Generation X (Gen Xers) born 1960-64 to 1980
Millenials (Gen Yers) born 1980 - 2000
--Ken Switzer
  Senior Academic Trainer & Consultant