How Do the Timing and Duration of Courses Affect Participation in Adult Learning and Education? A Panel Analysis

Abstract

Participation in adult learning and education requires the availability of, and accessibility to, learning opportunities provided by educational institutions. One fundamental element is time. Adult learning and education participation can only be realized by successfully matching individual time-availabilities with the temporal organization of provided courses. To address this required matching process, this study contributes to research literature as one of the first studies that investigates the impact of timing and course duration on participation counts (longitudinally). For this, we use organizational data from public adult education centers (Volkshochschulen—VHS; the main adult education providers in Germany) from 2007 to 2017. Methodologically, random- and fixed-effects models are applied. We find significant positive effects on participation counts between increasing program breadth in terms of temporal formats and increasing average course duration.