Nontraditional online adult graduate students ages 25 and older have unique challenges toward achieving their academic goals as compared to younger learners. These older graduate students usually already have families, careers, and other demands on their time. Deciding to pursue their advanced degrees is typically related to gaining a competitive edge or to completely changing careers. Learning barriers often include the lack of accommodations by instructors or learning institutions for these learners' unique needs and educational preferences. This study's general problem addressed identifying barriers faced by nontraditional online graduate students, and determining how unachieved goals lead to low retention among this population. The specific problem addressed the lack of accommodation by higher education professionals in identifying, acknowledging, and addressing the barriers, and fulfilling the expressed learning needs and preferences of these learners. The purpose of this modified Delphi study was to identify these nontraditional online graduate learners' perceived barriers to their learning, along with relevant strategies to decrease those barriers. Sharing this study's results should facilitate these learners' success, increase retention in their respective universities, and potentially improve profit margins for those universities as more nontraditional learners graduate. Through a modified Delphi method, recruited participants responded through two rounds of surveys about their specific, personal experiences related to their educational journeys. Questions progressed from broad to specific, with each successive round incorporating responses from the previous one, which allowed participants to indicate their agreement or disagreement with other participants' responses. Study participants included online graduate learners ages 25 and over who took online or blended learning graduate courses in four public and private universities in Maine. The study data obtained included these learners' personal accounts of their educational experiences, their own learning needs and preferences, their perceived barriers to achieving their academic goals, their anticipated real-world application for their online education, and their expectations for program completion. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]