From ‘Feel-Good’ to ‘Fits-Me’: Task relevance as the key driver in older adults' video-based learning

As internet access expands, more older adults engage in online non-formal learning, and video-based learning has become one of their primary avenues to continue their education. Because participation is voluntary, understanding what sustains their willingness to continue is critical for lifelong-learning initiatives. This article aims both to clarify how task relevance and learning-related emotion shape older adults' continuance intention of video-based learning and to offer evidence-based guidance for educators and platform designers seeking to enhance lifelong learning engagement. To address this aim, Experiment 1 examined the causal impact of task relevance and emotional factors and compared age differences. 77 young adults and 80 older adults viewed both high and low-relevance video lectures after induction into positive, negative, or neutral emotional states in a laboratory setting. Experiment 2 tested whether task relevance remains decisive for older learners in everyday contexts, tracking 44 older adults for six days in their usual environments while they followed either high or low-relevance lectures. Alongside continuance intention, we recorded learning performance and mental effort—the latter assessed both subjectively and objectively through eye-tracking data. Results showed that high task relevance markedly increased older adults' continuance intention of learning, learning performance and mental effort, yet scarcely affected young adults. Positive emotion enhanced continuance intention only when relevance was low. Task relevance therefore outweighs emotional factors in sustaining older adults’ engagement. These findings provide clear, relevance-focused guidance for designing effective video-based lectures and platforms that support lifelong learning in later life.