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Web Posted on: August 24, 1998


Elderly on Internet: 2 years of experience with special courses and design of course material

Ad van Berlo

Glaukopis Consultancy, Hoekseakker 3
5511 KW Knegsel
The Netherlands
Tel: +31 497 517894
fax: +31 497 518542
e-mail: vanberlo@dse.nl

1. Introduction

In the Netherlands, 30 - 40 % of the group of older people between 55 and 70 years old has an active and comfortable life. In 1996, 18 % of the 1.2 million households in this age group owns a computer at home, whereas 41 % of the persons between 18 and 55 years old has a computer. From the total number of computers, some 20 % has also a modem. It is estimated that some 10.000 people between 55 and 70 years use E-mail or Internet, which is less than 1 % of this group.

The age group above 70 years old has a relatively low educational level. Therefore, there is a relatively high threshold for buying electronic equipment like computers. There is a low motivation to invest for futural purposes anyhow. And also they see little added value to the use of modern communication technology in comparison to the traditional ways of communication.

In the USA, the number of female and older Internet users grows relatively faster than the total number of users. In Europe this making up has not been started yet. The Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta (USA) has investigated the use of Internet. In 1996, from the total group of Internet users in the USA, approximately 4 % is older than 55 years, whereas in Europe about 1 % is older than 55 years. The main use of Internet is in finding information, electronic news and magazines, product information and research.

In 1996, in Eindhoven a group of organisations active in the area of elderly care and telecommunications technology, started a project to find out what the opportunities and obstacles are for use of Internet by older people. For the project two institutions for sheltered living were chosen, one being a traditional old people's home and the other being a modern service flat for senior citizens. The two years of experiences in this project are described in this paper.

In 1997, the author of this paper was asked to design and write the concepts of two new course books, which ought to be understood and appreciated by older people. During the development of the material a steering committee and a feedback group of older people delivered the necessary feedback. The most important experiences are summarised in this paper as well.


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2. Materials and methods

In April 1996, the first project started with hiring an 0.8 fte officer. She was a graduate in senior issues, but had no specific computer expertise. She was supported by a steering committee, that reviewed the progress bi-monthly. The project was started with an inventory of avialable course material, the installation of the right equipment and Internet access. Most importantly, the officer was also responsible for the search, selection and education of candidates for an Internet course.

It was decided to start with the residents of two complexes with sheltered housing. The one, named Theresia, is a traditional home for the elderly, with an average age of 85 years. The other one, named Park St. Peter, is a complex of appartments, where senior households live independently, but in a protected way and a guarantee for care if needed. The average age here is 68 years, while the pension income of the tenants is relatively high. In both facilities one computer with Internet connection was installed. In Theresia, the computer was placed in the restaurant, which serves as the daily meeting place for all residents. In Park St. Peter, the computer was placed in a small room, where no other activities were carried out. In the two facilities two master groups were formed, who should receive the basic education and who should further educate and help other residents who want to learn using the computer and Internet. The master group in Theresia consisted of 5 men between 58 and 70 years old; 4 of them are volunteers in the old people's home, the 5th one is a resident. The master group in Park St. Peter consisted of women and men with age between 60 and 70, being residents all of them.

All in total approximately 250 residents got an own E-mail address. The problem with privacy was solved as follows: the members of the master groups were asked to maintain privacy as much as possible, by printing an incoming message for a resident and give it in a closed envelop to the addressed person. In both centres messages were given to visitors (relatives, friends) that the resident had his or her own E-mail address from that moment on, so that one could send E-mails as well. After a while, the master groups even wrote to all addresses of children and grandchildren in order to get them interested in E-mailing to their parents or grandparents.

By the end of 1996 the 0.8 teacher left the project. Then, in June 1997, a new teacher was hired for 0.2 fte for the period of half a year. She was asked to train the older users in problem solving particularly. As from the beginning of 1998 no teacher will be hired anymore. The master group is supposed to further continue the project and train newco mers themselves.


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3. Results

3.1 Experiences in the complexes with sheltered housing

For the residents of Theresia the subject of computers and Internet was very difficult to understand. Even with help of a video, which was made by a TV-station, which spent 5 minutes on the national TV, none of the residents of Theresia became really enthused.

After half a year the efforts to gain more interest in this home for the elderly were stopped.

The inventory of existing course material learned that there were no adequate courses for older people on the market. Therefore, the project manager started developing a tailor made course for elderly. She started with teaching basic computer skills, since almost nobody had any experience with a computer. All lessons were given in blocks of 2 hours and with 2 persons at the same time, since there was only 1 computer available. The newly developed course consisted of the following modules:

a. Mouse skills

Using the computer mouse properly is very important for being able to get around in Internet. For some older people with stiff fingers a track-ball mouse was used to start with. Later on, every person became able to use a normal mouse. The card-game Patience was found a very nice tool to learn all details of mouse skills.

b. Windows

In the two facilities there were the two different versions of Windows: Windows 3.1 in Theresia and Windows 95 in Park St. Peter. In Theresia the self study on Windows 3.1 worked very well, without many necessary instructions. In Park St. Peter more instruction was needed, because the self study of Windows 95 is somewhat more confusing for beginners.

c. E-mail

Sending E-mails requires some basic skills in word processing. In Theresia a short period of time the group was taught to work with Write, the word processor of Windows 3.1. In Park St. Peter this was not done, since the initial master group had no problems with typing in messages in the E-mail box. The E-mail programme Eudora Light was chosen.

A new instruction guide was made for using all aspects of E-mail, including word processor, sending E-mails, retrieving E-mails and storage. The instruction guide has been found very useful in order to work independently.

Still, it became very clear in this project that the very basic things, such as finding the cursor or know where the characters are on the QWERTY board, have to be learned by most of the elderly users. This needs a lot of excercising, which should be done outside the lessons, with the help of good instructions in Dutch. The English terms in the programme Eudora were somewhat discouraging in the beginning. However, very soon people were used to the handlings and knew what was behind the English terms.

After two years 10 residents of Park St. Peter have bought their own computer, particu larly for E-mailing with their children.

d. Internet

Already after a couple of lessons a start with Internet was made. After initial personal guidance by the project manager, a new instruction guide was written. This guide includes the use of search engines, making one's own favourites, surfing and interact with public discussions. Since the English version of Netscape was used to browse on the Internet, there were again problems with English in the beginning of the course. Howe ver, the experiences are such that also older people are able to surf on Internet very soon, despite the language problems. Most of the people involved were interested in information in the area of tourism, leisure activities, musea and art. One of the items, which had great interest was contributing to chat groups with Dutch people who emigrated to Canada and Australia long time ago.

e. Other use

After two years the central PC is also used for playing games and for word processing by those, who never used a computer before. This has also contributed to more social contacts between inhabitants of the various appartments in the Park St. Peter.

3.2 Experiences in writing new course material

The experiences with teaching in Park St. Peter have learned a.o. that good computer skills at elderly require extensive teaching. However, if the course material and way of teaching is such that the user understands what is being done, a lot of self teaching and peer education can be achieved. This conclusion was used in the design of two new course books: one on computer purchase and use of simple word processing, etc. and the other one on using Internet. Now, a steering committee of 5 older computer users gave continuous feedback on writing the content of the two course books. Finally, ten older persons were given the pilot course books to work with it in groups of two in front of a computer. The first group had no computer experience at all, the second one had no Internet experience. Both types of involvement, the panel and the individual testing by groups of two, have delivered enormous amounts of information. This has been used to write the final versions of the two course books, which are used in learning centres for older people now.

Here, some of the main remarks from the small groups are given:

  • use of the keyboard of a computer is rather confusing and requires more explanati on than was given and expected;
  • a good index is required, since too much new information is delivered, which cannot be retained in one time;
  • working with a new programme, either a word processor or database or spreads heet, requires a lot of time. The panelists clearly indicated that they want to work on their own speed in discovering step by step new features. They don't want to hear or see all the time what all is possible. If they can decide themselves when en where they want to work with a certain part of the programme, they experience the computer as very pleasant and full of surprises.
  • the help that elderly people give each other was very self evident and natural. One feels very well what the problems of others are and therefore the help that one gives each other is very useful.
  • surfing on Internet by itself is not that difficult, but getting access to Internet is found less easy. Downloading of programmes is in most cases too difficult.


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4. Discussion and conclusions

After two years of intensive course and guidance some 30 persons, i.e. 15 % of the total residents in Park St. Peter and 5 persons of Theresia (master group) are able to send E- mails independently, read newsgroups and look for information on Internet without help.

In order to reach this the presence of a pleasant and skilled teacher has been extremely important. The first teacher particularly focused on basic skills and enthusing new users, the second teacher focused on problem solving. Both accents have proved to be useful.

In most practical situations the hiring of a part-time teacher will not be affordable. Then, the presence of a master group or peer group of older volunteers is of even more importance for continuity of such a project.

The following conclusions can be drawn from both projects:

  • Older persons are not too old to learn the necessary skills for new ways of telecommunication, such as Internet and E-mail. However, learning at older age requires extra time and effort at own pace of the student. Good instructions in own language, with a good index in the course books are necessary.
  • Within the group of older people above 55 years of age, a clear distinction must be made between those aged 55 - 70 and those above this age group. Also educational background proved to be an important factor for achieving interest in PC and Internet.
  • The groupwise and in-centre learning to handle and play with PC and Internet by itself will generate new social contacts and friendships.



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