The paper argues that the adult learning environment can in some instances be a ‘double-edged sword’, in that it can both enhance and limit student engagement.

Self-directed learning is independent—it provides the learner with the ability to make choices, to take responsibility for their own learning, and “the capacity to articulate the norms and limits of learned society, and personal values and beliefs” (Goddu, 2012).In self-directed learning, the instructor shifts from the leader of the learning experience to the “facilitator of learning,” becoming“a source to be tapped, as required by the learner” (Robotham 1995, as cited in Goddu 2012). Self-directed learning provides students with the “opportunity and freedom to choose the means of acquiring knowledge that is best suited” to them based on their own self-knowledge (Alex et al., 2007). In online or blended environments, self-directed learning canbe offered through the creation of “dynamic learning environments where students may go beyond content presented by the instructor to explore, interact with, comment on, modify, and apply the set content and additional content they discover or create through the learning process” (LeNoue, 2011).