THE BENEFITS AND LOSSES OF ONLINE LEARNING IN THIRD-AGE UNIVERSITIES DURING THE COVID PANDEMIC

Abstract

Due to the pandemic situation, the online form of education has become widespread in all its spheres. The education of seniors, which is provided, among others, at universities of the third age, has been no exception. Prior to the global pandemic, universities of the third age mainly provided full-time education. However, the new situation has brought new challenges. Third Age Universities have either decided to provide online education or have temporarily ceased their activities. In this paper, we focus on online education during the pandemic at a particular third age university. Based on the results of a questionnaire survey, we present the experiences of seniors with online learning, specifically, identifying the advantages of online education for seniors and the disadvantages of this form of education for this target group. To achieve these objectives, a quantitative research survey was conducted among seniors who participated in online learning at the University of the Third Age in question.