Generational Approaches to Online Learning

If you have spent any time on social media in recent years, you’ll be aware of an inter-generational culture war. Millennials and Baby Boomers appear to be eternally crossing swords, each decrying the values of the other.

On the face of it, these disagreements revolve around property prices, workplace attitudes and the benefits of avocado on toast. In reality, the core differences appear to run deeper. UK learning platform FutureLearn, in partnership with YouGov, have produced a global survey of adults in the UK, US and Australia, aiming to examine generational approaches to learning, public perception of online learning and establish both the history, and future, of education.

47% of surveyed millennials – and 50% of Generation Z, aka zoomers – believe that education has the power to change the world, save the planet and resolve human rights crises throughout the globe. Older participants expressed significantly greater cynicism, with just 32% expressing similar faith.

It appears that the onset of the internet is responsible for this chasm in beliefs. Younger generations firmly believe in the power of education through technology. Some 30% of millennials and zoomers expressed an interest in education through social media platforms, with one in five declaring such insights just as valuable as knowledge obtained from a formal classroom setting. This desire plummeted to below 20% in older generations.

On the face of it, this is wholly understandable. For the baby boomer generation, the internet did not enter their lives until deep into adulthood. By this point, a formal education would have long been completed – and, perhaps more pertinently, beliefs and attitudes have grown ingrained.

Unlike the under 40s of today, older generations were forced to rely upon mainstream media outlets, such as daily newspapers or broadcast reports, to gain insights into the environment and societal issues. Millennials and zoomers have been born into an IT-literate world and have long trusted data provided on peer-to-peer platforms such as Twitter.

For example, a mere 6% of baby boomers have ever investigated social media for data on the environmental crisis, and 4% of the older generation study topics of social injustice online. By the time we reach Generation Z, these numbers soar to 24% and 37% respectively.

Zoomers are also the hungriest for new knowledge. Just 8% of respondents from this generation claimed that there were no subjects they felt a desire to learn more about. 12% of millennials made the same claim. 32% of older respondents, meanwhile, expressed that they knew all they need to learn and have no interest in any form of further education.

It was interesting to learn what subjects captured the imagination of these younger participants, too. 41% expressed a desire to further their knowledge of personal financial management. Mental health posted a similar result, potentially linked to the barrage of information that younger generations are exposed to daily.

So, in summary, what does this tell us about the changing attitudes toward education between disparate generations? Ultimately, it appears that younger responders are keen to use education as a launchpad for an entrepreneurial spirit. 43% of millennials expressed interest in setting up a business within a decade, while this desire was matched by 39% of zoomers. These statistics plummeted to 19% in older correspondents.

Naturally, logistics may play a part here. Older responders are likelier to be financially comfortable in a salaried role and will have one eye on retirement. Education at such a stage of life could be seen as an unnecessary distraction. Many younger respondents claimed that they would be interested in an online course to improve their education and skills to make this possible, though.

Overall, the survey cements what we have long suspected. The distrust that older generations have in modern-day education surrounding the internet is almost in direct inverse to that of younger respondents. For those that have grown up in a digital world, the online realm is seen as an extension of education garnered in the classroom. For older adults, the internet and the education sector are entirely separate entities – and never the twain shall meet.