The role of group interactions in a web-based training for older adults: impact on learning experience and achievement

Classical views on learning have portrayed this process as an individual and passive process, mainly associated with childhood and formal education. This biased approach impacts on other age groups and, specifically, it marginalizes and has negative consequences for older adults and their cognitive health, which is becoming an increasing problem for the older population as well as for the health care system having to respond to increasing demands. However, modern research and contemporary theories are focusing more on the learning process in later stages of life and are consistently demonstrating the importance of life-long learning to prevent cognitive decline and, additionally, the importance of social interactions to enhance the learning process and to build more robust and enduring concepts. Previous studies have suggested that learning in a group setting and through social interactions can foster social connections improving the problem of social isolation for older adults, as well as improving their learning process allowing them to acquire new skills and contrast the cognitive decline characteristic of older age. This study aims to analyze social interactions in a group setting within a web-based cognitive training designed for older adults, with particular focus on how these interactions impact on the group’s abilities to solve problems and on their abilities to progress on the training, as well as to investigate their satisfaction as a group on a social level.