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Adult students studying in evening programs have history textbooks that are too detailed and complicated. All they need are a couple of basic survey courses in history. Evening education programs for working adults is gaining in popularity. Universities and community colleges are taking steps to develop specific programs.

Those who have missed out the opportunity and want to pursue either a Bachelor’s or Associates degree programs attend the evening courses at least twice to thrice a week even as they support families and have full time jobs. Health care and business administration courses are the most popular.

In order to complete these programs, it is necessary to complete at least two history courses of college level. Courses, which are split into two semester course units, normally include American History or Western Civilization surveys.

History texts for the program are selected with the convenience of instructors and department heads in mind. One of the main reasons they select the same text books used in universities and colleges is because it makes their preparation job easier. Another reason for using the same books includes the online companion support offered for these concise texts. These books also come with great pictures, maps and graphs and are narrative and chronological.

What they fail to realize is this exhaustive syllabus is ideal for four year humanities courses, not for a short evening program which can just about take two short courses on history. The amount of information and detail in the chapters make it impossible for evening students to read through them and most of them just don’t do it.

The need of the hour is to customize text books according to the type of program. This will make things easier for students of university and college adult education programs.  For a student who is out of touch with studies for more than ten or fifteen years, it is not quite easy memorizing pages and pages of historical facts and figures.

Adult students are at par in intelligence with normal students. They also have the added advantage of work experience. However, it is not easy for them even to understand basic concepts of socialism and nationalism, leave alone the numerous chronological dates and facts. It is impossible to memorize and comprehend historical details of this volume.

In the interest of these students, books with just the basic facts highlighted have to be published. Identifying facts every student need to know including the Industrial Revolution, the Enlightenment, the Renaissance and the Reformation and providing a general idea with prominent facts highlighted is a good idea. The need here is clearly to address the specific needs of the students.

This also relieves the burden of instructors who are usually forced to laboriously create a general outline, provide notes, power points and source documents to explain a chapter to students. For students who are not studying humanities and still have to do a couple of history courses, a revised and simpler text book will be of great help.