Educational Toolkit for Elders – web courses and tasks for elders inclusion

Organisation and country where the good practice has been implemented: p-consulting.gr

Title: Educational Toolkit for Elders – web courses and tasks for elders inclusion

Main Theme/Area of intervention: Technology Enhanced Learning

Main objectives:

  • Develop a training program that will make old people more able to live an autonomous life
  • Make old people less depended on help from their partner, their children, volunteers and professional caregivers
  • Avoid loss of self – determination and self – respect

Target groups addressed: Before creating the courses the target groups were interviewed in the 4 different countries, leading to the final decision of having different web and mobile apps users’ courses as they are different in each country. For example in Spain it was Whatsapp instead of Viber in Greece and in Denmark it was the main governmental platform. In this way all different aspects of the target groups were covered, leading to a great number of elders and teachers taking part in the project, and still after 3 years of its end, the platform is still in use by several visitors.

1st Target Group: Teachers/trainers/coaches, Care staff for elders (nurses, social workers, psychologists etc), Volunteers who want to help older people Representatives from this target group participated in curriculum design, learned coaching skills and new methods in how to teach older people new technologies (trainers of elders).

2nd Target Group: Organizations and NGOs for older people, Older People. Representatives from this target group were trained in new technologies, digital devices and the internet.According to the proposal, the main target group of the project was elders over 55 years old, which should have been categorized into two groups according to their age: 1st group people between 55 – 70 (more active elders), and 2nd group people, between 71 – 85 (less active).

During the implementation of the project in Greece, participants to the training course (people over 55) were divided into groups not according to their age, but according to their knowledge in using computers and new technology. This criterion was more important for the division of the groups, as elders who knew about technology were more active and elders who didn’t know how to use digital devices or computers were less active. Moreover, it was easier for trainees (elders) to participate in the training procedure when all members of each group were in the same level of knowledge of how to use new technology.

3nd Target Group: VET organizations, Policy Makers.

Dissemination activities were also targeted to inform VET organizations about the project and the expected results. It was important for the sustainability of the project representatives from VET organizations, policy makers etc to participate in project activities, because they can use the E-learning courses in the future. Moreover, it was important policy makers to be informed in order to promote activities for independent living in local, regional and national community

Main activities necessary for its realisation: A very simple, interactive, accessible, user friendly and responsive web platform hosting several educational courses around mobile and web apps ways of exploitation, has been created in 4 languages. Everything on the platform is designed for elders’ usage.

Results achieved: “Number of applications for participation to the training course (elders).

According to the proposal we wanted a minimum 120 applications. Finally we had 232 applications from elders: 180 participated in the training course, 52 didi not participate because of health problems. (percentage of applications: 93% higher)

Number of trainees (elders). According to the proposal we wanted 120 trainees. Finally we had 180 participants (elders) to the training course: 172 finished the procedure, 8 stopped (health problems) (percentage of trainees: 50% higher)

Number of applications from teachers/trainers. According to the proposal we wanted a minimum of 20 applications. Finally we had 36 applications from teachers/trainers (percentage of applications: 80% higher)

Number of teachers/trainers involved. According to the proposal we wanted 20 teachers/trainers. Finally we had 28 teachers/trainers (because we had more than 120 trainees) (percentage of teachers/trainers: 40% higher)

Achievements on training

Number of courses. According to the proposal we wanted 5 groups with 6 trainees each group, which means 5 courses to be delivered. Finally we had 7 groups – 7 courses were delivered (percentage of courses delivered: 40% higher)

Contentment of trainees (elders). 48% will definitely use what they have learnt, 58.13% will definitely improve their independence using the technology they learnt, 70% feel more confident around technology than before”

Innovation: The project aimed to lay the foundations for the digital upgrading of citizens, especially elderly people. During the implementation of the project, more than 300 people participated in the training courses (computer courses). The trainees were not only members of organisations for elders, but also many elders individuals who were inspired by the dissemination of the project. The TECHSENIOR project is awarded by the Danish National Agency as a Pan European Good practice

Transferability: The Educational Toolkit is a compendium of digital courses (all the courses and tasks are hosted in a web platform) and can easily be transferred to other organisations for similar use.

Impact: International

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