The challenges facing adult learners are often overwhelming. Research shows most uneducated or undereducated adults are encumbered with poor self-esteem, frustration, feelings of helplessness, and dependency on others. They're often haunted by negative classroom experiences. Many believe they aren't smart and can't learn. They're hesitant to explore new learning opportunities. Faced with past failures, they often quit before they ever even try. To overcome these barriers, education is more important, not less.

Research has identified four crucial factors that determine success for the undereducated adult learner:

High school dropouts typically have embarrassing gaps in knowledge and essential learning skills. They often don't learn well in the traditional classroom setting, and are either bored with the pace or overwhelmed. Adult learners are often easily frustrated and embarrassed, lose interest quickly, and hesitate to ask basic questions.

Computer-based learning enables adult learners to move vertically as well as horizontally through educational material. When they come across knowledge gaps, they can easily access background information without embarrassment or frustration. They can adjust the speed of the learning process to their own needs and their own learning styles. Because adult learners are in control, they can progress quickly or repeat material as often as needed, to learn or reinforce skills and achieve educational success.

We all know what it's like to sit through endless hours of boring high school lectures about things that seem to have little relevance to our lives. In fact, a study done by Civic Enterprises for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation , found that the leading reason why students drop out of high school was that classes were not interesting. Just imagine how different high school would be if it had to compete in the marketplace with all the things that are interesting to the learner: Video games, music videos, TV programming, films, and shopping malls.

Most educational programs are content driven; they assume the learner will learn for the sake of learning, or because a teacher or parent tells them they must. The paradigm seems to be, "If we know it, you should learn it." This paradigm is flawed. Actually, learning is best driven by interest and relevance, not by content. We build our courseware on the premise that people will not learn unless they find the material intrinsically interesting and relevant to their lives.

Essential Ed courseware is centered on this premise: People learn better and remember more when the material is dynamic, interesting, and relevant to their lives. We know that if we can't make our learning intrinsically interesting and exceptionally retentive, it will not succeed on any level. We've met that challenge by creating a truly different kind of learning experience. It is one that makes every learner successful.

We model our courseware on one of the most sophisticated learning experiences today, computer gaming. Essential Ed courseware utilizes three very powerful learning principles rarely found in the classroom yet common to video games:

• Narrative -- Real life characters work through relevant material and problems.
• Audio/visual content - Highly engaging dialogue among real people solving real problems.
• Immediate feedback on learning progress - Learners always know where they are in their learning.

Adult learners learn best with continual feedback and reinforcement, offered in a variety of ways. Feedback is an actual part of the learning process - the key that moves learning from a memory bank to a knowledge vault. The constant feedback in a video game, offered in a variety of ways, is one of the prime drivers to game popularity. Feedback engages the player, keeps him or her involved and moving forward.

Like video game players, our learners are motivated and driven through the courseware by the desire to match wits with virtual classmates and succeed. With our continual feedback, offered in a variety of dynamic ways, adult learners know at all times how they are doing on specific learning activities and their overall learning objectives...

Our instructional design builds on constant, step-by-step opportunities for success. The learner is pulled through the courseware by the desire to know what happens next to the characters and by the desire to gain success in the learning tasks. Our materials puts learners in charge of their own learning. The results are remarkable. Students learn faster and remember more.

Essential Ed GED courseware gives you a powerful solution to a demanding task. While students learn at their own pace, in a style best suited to their needs, program directors, managers and teachers will discover a robust educational program blueprinted on the guidelines of the American Council on Education.

For the program director and teacher, it's a complete educational program that's flexible enough for all learners. Every base is covered, from lesson planning, through instruction and course management, to assessment. For the learner, it is an extraordinary new way to learn and be successful. The learner gets the skills and knowledge needed to obtain the GED certificate, and most important, the essential learning needed for success in school, at home, at work-in life. No small thing.