When colleges made the shift to online learning in the spring because of COVID-19, so much remained in question. How did the new coronavirus spread? What were the effects? Could colleges open for in-person instruction in the 2020-21 academic year, and what would happen if they did?

As the fall term comes to a close, hard-earned answers shed insight that may shape institutions’ responses both to the coming spring semester and to pandemics and other public-health threats in the future.

The American Council on Education is building a network of colleges to work on transferring credit for students' prior learning experiences.

The project aims to help learners who often bring credits from several institutions or their life experiences. This includes students over the age of 25, as well as those who are working full time, financially independent, or connected with the military. The council's program will focus on awarding credit for their prior experiences, including apprenticeships and corporate training.

Marcia McCallum’s initial experiences at Austin Community College illustrate how older students are often perceived in higher education. When enrolling, younger students assumed she had come to sign up her children. On the first day, other students thought she was the professor.

Today's education and training systems are ill-suited for the more than one-third of the nation’s college students who are older than 25, asserts Lumina Foundation's Jamie Merisotis in this op-ed. We urgently need to address this disconnect if we are to have any hope of a rapid economic rebound when the pandemic eases. That means meeting these students where they are.