Publications and Scholarship
Document Type
Report
Publication Date
7-11-2016
Keywords
elder circle, learning circle, older adults, online learning circle, asynchronous discussion
Abstract
This participatory qualitative research project is a follow-up study to an earlier (2013) Centre for Elder Research (hereafter referred to as the Centre) research project – Online Elder Circles: A Guide to their Creation and Benefits – that explored the experience of creating and delivering an elder circle program in an online format as well as the benefits to the participants. Elder circles are learning circles, facilitated small closed groups of older adults who explore collaboratively the experience of growing older and living in old age. In the earlier study, the researcher and the project’s participants successfully translated the face-to-face elder circle model to an online one with significant self reported benefit to all participants. The present project provided a further opportunity to learn about the online elder circle model. Seven participants, aged 83 to 65, recruited through the Centre’s online database, met online for facilitated asynchronous discussion on a password-protected website for a period of six weeks. This time, technological issues contributed to a much less satisfactory experience for the participants. The report describes what was done and what was learned, with participants’ reflections on their experience as well as their insight into what worked and what did not. Conclusions and recommendations are included.
Faculty
Sheridan Research
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Copyright
© Sheridan Research
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
SOURCE Citation
Medcalf, Trudy; Tsotsos, Lia; and Spadafora, Pat, "Online Elder Circles: A Follow-up Study" (2016). Publications and Scholarship. 44.
https://source.sheridancollege.ca/centres_elder_publ/44
