Abstract:

It has been a year since the whole society had to face a new challenge and find a new path. The path that no one knew and could not prepare for. It also affected senior education, which is, among other things, provided at universities of the third age. Due to the global pandemic, new technologies that have not been used in senior education before, or only in relation to isolated activities, have come to the fore.

Universities of the third age represent one of the most well-known forms of senior education and have a tradition of almost forty years in Europe. Their offer usually builds on fields in which the university professionally dominates. In addition to the fact that, thanks to this form of education, seniors acquire additional skills and knowledge and maintain their mental and physical health, they also support or develop communication and social contacts. Before the global pandemic, universities of the third age provided mainly face-to-face teaching. But the new situation introduced new challenges.

Universities of the third age across Europe have either decided to provide online teaching or have temporarily ceased their activities in pandemic times. In this paper, we focus on online teaching during the pandemic. We describe forms of distance education used at universities of the third age in the Czech Republic. Based on the questionnaire survey results, we present what experience the seniors who signed up for online classes had with information technologies and how their knowledge developed during the online education. We also identify the benefits of online education for seniors and the disadvantages of this form of education for this target group. To achieve these goals, a quantitative research survey was conducted among the seniors who participated in online activities organized by the universities of the third age.

Keywords:

Universities of the third age, COVID-19 pandemic, information and communication technologies, online education.