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Identifying and fulfilling adult learners' needs is critical to instructional designs aimed at enhancing their achievement and self-empowerment. In reviewing different theories and perspectives on adult learning and online and blended learning (OBL), it is noteworthy that there is not a comprehensive framework to guide the design of OBL environments that meet adult learners' needs, and that are underpinned by adult learning theories, online knowledge construction, motivational theories, and technological acceptance models. In this respect, the theory of existence, relatedness, and growth (ERG) (Alderfer, 1972) is applicable to interpret different types of needs to sustain learning motivation. Employing the ERG theory as the overarching framework, the purpose of this paper is to capture adult learners' needs from both positivist and subjectivist perspectives. In other words, the identified needs are to help adult learners optimally perform the learning activities designed to achieve the learning goals on the one hand, and to sustain their motivation during the learning process on the other hand. Thus, the framework is helpful for practitioners, curriculum developers, and researchers who are in search of a theoretical background for both instructional design and empirical investigation.
Keywords: online/blended learning, adult learners, learning needs
Introduction
The conceptualisation and evaluation of adult learners' needs are crucial in designing learning environments (Isman, 2011). Fulfilling the needs of adult learners is more likely to bring about high-quality learning. While traditional learning environments have been gradually transformed into those of a technology-mediated nature, instructional designers and instructors of online and blended learning (OBL) are lacking a conceptual framework that underlines the needs of adult learners. In addressing the challenges adult educators encounter when it comes to teaching and learning in an OBL environment, Shea (2006) provides a pertinent account. The author postulates that efforts should be devoted to understanding 'how learning generally occurs; how it occurs among adult learners, and how it occurs in technologymediated environments' (Shea, 2006, p. 20). Laurillard (2012) believes that learning theories have not changed to a great extent with the introduction of technologies. Different perspectives and theories such as experiential learning, inquiry learning, socio-constructivism, and more recently transformative learning still reserve a major role in explaining how learners acquire knowledge in formal settings (Laurillard, 2012). However, a significant contribution that technologies have made...