Understanding Today’s Learners
Did you know that each generation and the trends that shape them can offer meaningful insights into our students? While every individual is different, understanding the characteristics of Millennials (born 1980–1994) and Gen Z (born 1995–2012) can help us better anticipate how students engage with learning, technology, and communication. As instructors, we can use this knowledge to design more effective and inclusive learning experiences. At the same time, it’s important to approach generational research with care, avoiding stereotypes and recognizing the diversity within any group.
Explore the information below to see how generational trends may influence what students expect from their learning environments and how we can meet them where they are.
Gen Z in the Classroom: Needs, Motivations, and Challenges
Today’s traditional college-aged learners are mostly represented as the Gen Z generation. They have grown up with smartphones and relied on technology and social media for accessing knowledge. They have a range of diverse needs and need help developing cross-cultural communication skills; that is, interacting with people that have different values, beliefs, cultural backgrounds, identities, priorities, and expectations due to the social isolation they have experienced by the increased social media use, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many Gen Z learners arrive to college with the following:
- Experience social anxiety and or other mental health concerns
- Difficulty in making decisions due to not having gained independence or taking higher risks earlier in life, as seen in previous generations
- Are extrinsically motivated and seek immediate gratification
- Want to be acknowledged for their identities and voices
Reaching Gen Z: Tools for Connection, Clarity, and Choice
For Gen Z, technology is the most influencing element underlying their generation. Today’s learners want relevancy of application to real-world context, guidance with options and choice, and opportunities to learn with technology that is appropriate and meaningful to the task. Gen Z often experience social anxiety challenges and need opportunities to connect with the learning and others in multiple ways so that these challenges are offset. They need clear expectations and instructions on how to get to desired goals yet want learner agency. The following are some frameworks that can help with designing courses for and teaching today’s generation of learners.Ìý
- : Offers suggestions to promote learner agency that can be applied to any discipline so all learners can access and participate in meaningful learning.
- : Although Dr. Pacansky-Brock speaks to humanizing online course, many of the concepts can be applied in all courses to build trust and community for learners.
- The Norton Guide to equity-minded teaching.ÌýProvides a how-to approach for both designing and teaching your course. This book is also available asÌý.
- Alternative Grading Techniques: These approaches rethink traditional grading structures to prioritize feedback, student growth, and mastery over points and percentages. They can help reduce anxiety, promote equity, and support learner agency—values that align closely with Gen Z’s educational needs.
Teaching the Whole Student: Belonging, Growth, and Inclusion
Our role as instructors is not only to be content experts. Our responsibility in higher education includes cultivating a sense of belonging to the campus community, faculty, other learners, and the field/discipline they are studying. We need to nurture not only the cognitive and physical dimensions, but also tend to their emotional, social, and ethical growth to develop their whole person while on their educational journey.
- Cultivate a sense of belonging to campus community, to other learners, to faculty, and to the field/discipline.
- Nurture whole person development - cognitive, physical, emotional, social, ethical growth.
- Create an inclusive learning environment - acknowledge identities and represent multiple voices, set clear expectations, opportunities for choice and connection to others.
Supportive Tools to Enhance Your Course
- Inclusive Syllabi Template – A sample syllabus that incorporates inclusive language, community agreements, and transparent course policies to help all students feel welcomed and supported.
- Rubrics– Examples of clear, student-centered rubrics that outline expectations, promote transparency, and support equitable assessment across different types of assignments.
- Working in Groups / Group Guidelines – Guidance and templates for setting up successful group work, including expectations, roles, and conflict-resolution strategies to ensure collaborative learning.
- – A practical tool for reviewing your course design and delivery with a focus on accessibility, inclusivity, and alignment with learning outcomes.
- BUFF Framework – A ¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉä Boulder-developed framework that helps instructors design learning experiences that are Balanced, Understandable, Flexible, and Focused—especially useful when planning with Gen Z learners in mind.
Helping Students Thrive: Key Teaching Frameworks
To continue exploring effective teaching strategies, we invite you to consider three instructional lenses—pedagogy, andragogy, and heutagogy—that can support learners at different stages of their academic journey. We also highlight the role of cognitive load in facilitating meaningful learning and transfer.
Resources and Tools:Ìý
Flaherty, C. (March 2023). What students want (and don’t) from their professors.ÌýInside Higher Education.Ìý
-University of Northern Illinois Center for Innovative Teaching and LearningÌý
-AACSB International (AACSB)Ìý
-Faculty Focus
-Army and Navy Academy
Lumina Foundation. (November 2022). Today’s students.Ìý
- Twenge, J. M. (2023).Ìýgenerations. Atria Books.