Nudging digitalisation: innovative methods to stimulate digital adult education

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the didactic landscape of adult education. To meet clients’ ongoing demand for support, adult educators had to expand their didactic toolkit and enhance digital literacy. Relying on data gathered during a training series on digital adult education, this paper will examine the following questions: (1) How did adult educators manage to adopt digital methods despite pressing issues and hurdles in regards to the change? (2) Which conditions support efficient training of adult educators, aiming at ‘nudging’ digitalisation in adult education for families? To gain insight into this didactic transformation, we systematically analyse both quantitative and qualitative data collected during a training series fostering digital literacy such as technology handling, online counselling and the usage of social media. These events attracted 1,250 participants that specialise in parenting programmes, family counselling and institutionalised family welfare. Findings include how practitioners with different backgrounds and levels of digital skills assess different methods and didactic choices. Further, we will examine how providing accessible and applicable information can act as a nudge to spark intrinsic motivation for further learning and as a starting point for new ideas.