The Council on Academic Affairs Thursday will examine a course designed to assist adult students above the age of 25 with the transition back into higher education.

The course, Educational Foundations 2985, would be required of all students in the Board of Trustees Bachelor’s Degree Program, which is a program for students above the age of 25 that are returning to college to complete a degree that they had previously left unfinished, Lorreta Woodward, BOT degree program director, said Wednesday.

“The real intent of the course is to engage adult students more quickly to the education process, and provide them with information and skills on how to be successful,” Woodward said.

The adult students want the “personal satisfaction of completing something that has been left undone, and others want the degree for job enhancement,” Woodward said, “but many come back with fear of being in an environment surrounded by younger people in a competitive atmosphere. We want them to know that they can be successful, and help ease them into that.”

Writing communication skills would be the focus of the course and the proposal is to make the course writing-intensive.

The course will also teach learning and study strategies and styles that will build the students’ confidence.

“Many of these students have families and jobs that don’t allow them as much time to complete assignments or be on campus,” Woodward said.