"Students know when the instructors care about their learning. And with the kind of feedback I give, in a timely way, I think they know that I care."

At the Extension Certificate Awards Ceremony held every year in June by UW Educational Outreach, the Construction Management students are easy to pick out of the audience: They're the ones wearing hard hats. The success of this certificate program and several other related programs is due in no small part to John Schaufelberger, associate professor and chair of the UW Construction Management Department and winner of the 2008 UW Distinguished Contributions to Lifelong Learning Award.

The Lifelong Learning Award is given to faculty members who have taught in or designed UW non-degree programs aimed at adults seeking professional development, personal interest or career redirection. Schaufelberger has played leadership and teaching roles in five such programs -- programs aimed at raising the educational level of working construction professionals in the Puget Sound area and nationally. He has played a central and vital role in the creation and implementation of both the onsite and online certificate programs in Construction Management and the online program in Facility Management.

He has also been a driving force behind the online graduate program in Construction Engineering, which includes three embedded certificate programs. Through these certificate programs, working professionals can participate in a graduate-level academic experience without seeking a full master's degree and immediately apply what they learn on the job.

"John's leadership and guidance have been a significant reason for the ongoing success of the certificate programs," said Trisha Dvorak, associate director of academic programs for UW Educational Outreach.

Schaufelberger's popularity and effectiveness as an instructor is evident in consistently high student ratings. When asked for his recipe, he says, "Students know when the instructors care about their learning. And with the kind of feedback I give, in a timely way, I think they know that I care." He adds, "I try to think like a student, to anticipate their needs and questions. Students need to know what's expected of them; what they are to do must be transparent."

Schaufelberger enjoys the different perspectives brought to the classroom by his certificate program students, most of them mid-career, working professionals. "They bring their work experiences into the classroom, which they share," he says. "This adds a real richness to the conversation because they come from different environments and enhance the learning of other students."

Adult students are also more demanding of the educational experience -- in the most positive ways, he says. "They ask more probing questions because they have life background and context to do so. They don't just absorb what the instructor is saying and accept it as gospel; they want to know why."

Asked to share a few tips for working with adult students, Schaufelberger advises: "You need to be realistic in your expectations but challenge them at the same time. They have to believe they're getting value out of the time they're spending on the course. Time is a very valuable commodity for adult students. Otherwise they become disenchanted or disengaged."

Sometimes, his students are so engaged that he has to limit how much time they use to share their work experiences in class. "So you have to be a policeman at the same time you're working to draw them out," he explains. "You have to find a balance." He also notes that the culture between instructors and the adult student is a little different. "Many 'nontraditional' students have demands on their lives because of work and family, so you need to be more flexible, learn to live with it when a student has a sick child or is travelling on business; you have to work around their life emergencies."

His ongoing ties in the construction management industry undoubtedly add to his rapport with the working professionals in his certificate program and master's program courses. There are other benefits as well.

"His stature and visibility within the professional communities have enabled these programs to attract and maintain involvement of other top professionals via our advisory boards," says Dvorak. Those advisory boards are critical to gauging current and future educational needs in the industry -- of great importance to working professionals, who value immediate practical application on the job.