What Make Seniors Feel More Confident in Learning Internet and Computers? A Case Study

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate each aspect of the influential factors of seniors’ confidence increase when learning Internet and computers. Factors included, seniors’ motivation, obstacles solved due to support, and their coping strategies for obstacles when learning Internet and computers. A course was designed to support beginning-level seniors to learn knowledge and skills regarding usage of Internet and computers with teachers’ and assistants’ guidance. Content analysis was used to investigate each aspect of influential factors of confidence increase from the interview data. A sample of 30 middle and aged students was volunteered in this study. It is found that providing a course with content knowledge and skills that are interesting, enjoyable, useful, and sharable to seniors is important for motivating seniors, which in turns could increase their confidence. The findings also pinpointed the crucial role of assistants around students as most of them said that their increase of confidence was due to obstacles solved with the aid. In addition, asking for help was reported as one dominant coping strategy, which was used by seniors that can make them feel more confident.