By: The Capella University Editorial Team with Bradly E. Roh, PhD, DBA and Interim Dean and Vice President for the School of Business, Technology and Health Care Administration
Reading Time: 12 minutes
Picture a nurse manager with seven years of department experience. They understand staffing models, budget cycles and the operational rhythms of their unit in ways that took years to develop on the job. They enroll in an online healthcare administration program. The first module covers organizational structure in healthcare settings.
But they already know this structure – they’ve worked in it.
Malcolm Knowles spent his career studying the gap between what adult professionals already know and what a standardized curriculum assumes they still need to learn.
His answer was adult learning theory: a framework built on the observation that adults learn differently from children. Traditional teaching models built on assumptions about how children learn don’t always serve working professionals well.
To explain how those principles translate into actual course and program design, this article draws on insights from Lisa Mohanty, PhD, program director for the Bachelor of Science (BS) in Business, Master of Business Administration (MBA) and Master of Science (MS) in Human Resource Management programs at Capella University. Dr. Mohanty has taught in both traditional and online classrooms, giving her a direct comparative perspective that most discussions of adult learning theory lack.
Adult learning theory (or “andragogy”) is a framework for understanding how adults approach education. It’s closely associated with American educator Malcolm Knowles, who popularized the concept as a way of describing adult-focused education.
Traditional pedagogy tends to position an instructor as a learner’s primary source of knowledge. Andragogy emphasizes what adult students bring to education. That may include a combination of experience, independence and a motivation to learn.
According to Knowles’ framework, adults may approach education differently because their careers, relationships and other life experiences have given them knowledge they can connect to new information. They may also be more interested in learning when they can see how it applies to a problem or goal that matters to them.
For example, an office manager studying leadership might draw on years of experience managing employees when analyzing workplace conflicts and developing resolution strategies. This allows them to connect existing knowledge with new ideas.
Knowles built his framework around six core assumptions about how adults approach learning. These assumptions matter not just as educational theory but because they explain why certain degree models serve working professionals well and others do not. Specifically, they explain why competency-based education (CBE) isn’t just compatible with adult learning theory. It’s the degree-level model built around it.
Knowles identified six assumptions that distinguish working adults from younger students. Each one has direct implications for how degree programs should be designed, and for what working adults should look for when evaluating an online program.
As adults gain experience, they often become more comfortable taking ownership of their learning instead of relying on a teacher to dictate what, when or how they learn.
In practice, this means working adults often perform better in programs that give them genuine agency over their academic progression. At Capella, the FlexPath learning format is built on this principle. Instead of moving through a fixed schedule of online courses, students advance when they can demonstrate competency, not when a semester ends.
Working adults do not arrive at education without context. They carry professional histories, lived experience and accumulated knowledge that shape how they process new information.
Dr. Mohanty teaches Intro to Economics and sees this directly.
Her class of around 50 students has included a performer who spent nine years at Disneyland, a mom of four returning to education after time away and working professionals from across the country, each bringing a different career background into the same classroom.
“A diversity of demographics is a diversity of thinking,” Dr. Mohanty says, “because your demographics shape so much of your values and belief systems.”
This is the prior experience assumption in action. In a CBE model, that experience is the foundation on which new competencies are built. Assessments are designed to measure what students can do with what they already know, not what they can recall from a lecture.
Adults engage with education when it addresses something they are already facing: a promotion that requires a credential, a new role with different skill requirements or a career transition they are actively pursuing.
Readiness is tied to relevance.
A working professional pursuing a project management course because they are already leading cross-functional projects does not need convincing that the content matters. Competency-based programs are built on this observation, structuring course objectives and assessments around authentic professional scenarios rather than abstract subject matter.
Adult learners generally don’t want to memorize information for its own sake. They want to understand how knowledge can be applied to real issues, which is what problem-centered learning is all about.
Applied assessments and workplace scenarios may produce stronger results for working adults than traditional written exams because the application is immediate. When a student submits an analysis grounded in an actual organizational challenge rather than a hypothetical case, knowledge retention may improve through direct transfer to their professional context.
Working adults are not primarily driven by grades or external recognition. They are driven by personal purpose and the desire to build skills that carry meaning beyond a transcript.
“When you have a degree to your name, what it represents can also mean something. It represents that you were able to meet deadlines, communicate and possess skills that are relevant in society. That’s something that won’t go away once you earn it,” says Dr. Mohanty.
This reframes the credential as evidence of capability rather than a transaction. Degree programs designed for intrinsically motivated adults center goals over grades, and self-paced structures that let students advance on their own terms support this kind of motivation more effectively than fixed-schedule models.
Adults engage more with material when they understand why it matters. A statistical concept lands differently when you can see how it helps evaluate business performance or build a report at work than when it’s taught in the abstract.
Adult learning theory and CBE aren’t the same thing. Knowles developed his framework to explain how adults approach education, while CBE is an approach to designing and delivering education around demonstrated competencies.
Several features of CBE can align with the principles Knowles described. For example, competency-based assessments focus on demonstrating what you can do with your knowledge rather than simply completing a set amount of instructional time. That can create opportunities for working professionals to draw on existing experience while demonstrating new skills.
Applied assessments can also connect learning to practical problems. Instead of treating knowledge as something to memorize for an exam, students may be asked to demonstrate how they would use it in a professional context.
Flexible pacing can support self-direction, too. When students have greater control over their progress, they have more responsibility for deciding how to organize their time and move through their coursework.
Capella’s approach to competency-based education reflects the idea that students can bring existing knowledge into their education. Rather than assuming every student starts with exactly the same level of experience, the focus is on demonstrating the competencies associated with a program.
The asynchronous nature of online learning adds another dimension. Dr. Mohanty is specific about what this means for working adults who are often processing complex, current-event-driven material alongside a full professional schedule: “An asynchronous model allows you to think before you write.”
In a synchronous environment, that kind of thinking happens under pressure.
Asynchronous removes that constraint. “That moment when you’re in the shower and you’re like, gosh, I wish I’d said this,” Dr. Mohanty notes, “well, you can actually go back [to your discussion forum] and add it.”
This is Knowles’ reflection principle built into the format. It’s not a workaround for the limitations of online delivery, but a deliberate design feature that serves the way working adults think.
None of this means CBE or online learning automatically works better for every working professional. Self-directed education requires organization, motivation and time management. Understanding your own preferences is therefore an important part of deciding whether this type of learning environment suits you.
Malcolm Knowles and his six assumptions are often cited as the foundation of modern adult learning theory. However, there are other theories that look at the role of learner experience, changes of perspective and reflective learning in different ways.
David Kolb’s experiential learning theory is all about how adults learn through experience. This theory focuses on a learning process that involves experience, reflection, conceptualization and experimentation. As an adult learner, this might mean applying a new leadership approach at work, reflecting on its effectiveness and adjusting it based on what you learned.
Jack Mezirow’s transformative learning theory explains how critical reflection can change your perspectives. For adult learners, encountering new research may challenge assumptions developed through work experience, encouraging you to reconsider how you view your career, professional identity or approach to familiar challenges.
These theories focus on different parts of learning, but they can work together. A competency-based approach, for example, might incorporate self-directed learning, practical application, prior experience and reflection to create a holistic environment for adult learners.
They all complement other major learning theories that are often applied to teaching both adults and young people.
Bearing that in mind, it’s fair to say Knowles’ framework is one influential perspective within the broader field of learning theory.
If you’re a working adult, the right educational approach for you often depends on how learning connects to the knowledge or responsibilities you already have. Capella’s approach integrates several of the core principles of adult education by emphasizing flexibility, practical application and your own professional experience.
Mohanty brings a useful perspective here, having taught at both traditional and online institutions while also teaching within the programs she oversees.
In Capella’s MBA project management course, students are required to use Microsoft Copilot on a real case study and submit a reflection on how they applied it and what the output produced. The assignment is graded not on what the AI generates but on the student’s analysis of it.
“We asked students to use Copilot for one of their assignments,” Dr. Mohanty explains, “and part of the assignment was to reflect and include the steps on how they used AI. The students really appreciated that they had this assignment where they were actually asked to use it and evaluated on their analysis of the result.”
These are the problem-centered and reflective assumptions of adult learning theory expressed as a specific course deliverable rather than learning about a professional tool in the abstract, but being assessed on the capacity to use it critically. That is the kind of workforce readiness a working professional pursuing an MBA may need.
Capella’s degrees have been developed through a competency-based approach that lets you demonstrate what you already know rather than just working your way through material in the classroom. This is often particularly useful for learners who are going back to school to pursue a degree within their current or adjacent professional sectors.
That design commitment is reflected in a set of internally developed digital tools built specifically to support working adult engagement in online degree programs:
The scholar-practitioner faculty at Capella bring that same principle to the classroom. They know how theory applies to the workplace, and their teaching is designed to help you connect academic concepts with immediate professional contexts.
Students at Capella choose between two learning formats based on where they are on the self-direction spectrum. GuidedPath provides structured pacing for those who benefit from external accountability. FlexPath, on the other hand, lets students move at their own pace. Both reflect adult learning principles at different points on the self-direction scale that Knowles described.
Self-direction exists on a spectrum, and where you sit on that spectrum right now should inform the format you choose.
These four questions can help:
Neither set of answers is wrong. They indicate where you are on the self-direction spectrum and which format is likely to serve you best at this point in your career.
“I began as a GuidedPath student, but I switched to FlexPath halfway through my bachelor’s degree. I enjoyed both avenues for different reasons. GuidedPath gave me the ability to take classes in a more traditional setting, which really helped me settle back into school after being out for so long. In contrast, FlexPath provided me the opportunity to work at my own pace, which allowed me to really blossom in my studies.” – Elizabeth Garner, BS in Business and MBA, FlexPath
Garner’s account reflects the self-direction spectrum Knowles described: a progression that different people enter at different stages, not a binary choice between formats. Capella’s learning format comparison page can help you identify which approach fits where you are now, and student support resources are available to help you think it through.
Adult learning theory is not an abstract educational concept. It is a framework built from decades of research into how professionals with real experience and clear goals actually learn, and it has directly shaped how online degree programs are designed.
Capella’s competency-based curriculum reflects these principles across every dimension of the student experience: assessments grounded in real professional problems and a scholar-practitioner faculty model that brings field expertise directly into course design and delivery.
Choosing to pursue a degree at this stage of your career is a significant decision. The right program is one built around how you actually learn.
We've received your message and will get back to you soon.
