Developing a framework to guide personalized support for older adults learning novel technologies

The percentage of the population consisting of older adults in the United States, as well as in many nations around the world, is growing at a rapid pace. Maintaining functional independence is an important contributor to aging successfully and maintaining a high quality of life. Current and emerging consumer technologies can support older adults with a wide range of daily activities as well as help alleviate the societal pressures that such an aging populace may bring regarding their need for care. However, benefits are only possible if older adults can successfully learn how to use these technologies and maintain this use over time. Thus, facilitating conditions, generally defined as resources available to support the initial and long-term use of a technology or system, are essential in supporting older users in understanding the technology and its capabilities, as well as providing effective and reliable means of assistance when needed. With increasing age also comes increasing interindividual variability in abilities, resources, and preferences. The assumption that older adults can effectively learn novel technologies with the use of generalized instructional materials that are primarily developed for younger users may not be the best approach. Advancements in the personalization of learning hold great potential to accommodate the increasing diversity among older adults and deliver instructional information and learning support that best matches their individual needs. However, there is little known about the factors that contribute to personalized learning of novel technologies for older adults, or about their attitudes, opinions, and preferences toward such an approach. The purpose of this research was to advance understanding of the factors related to the effective design and implementation of personalized instructional support for older adults’ successful learning of novel technologies through the development of a conceptual framework. The first study involved a narrative literature review that amalgamated research across a broad array of applicable domains to develop the Personalized Initial and Continued Support (PICS) Framework for Older Adult Technology Use. The resultant framework was comprised of subcomponents of an older adults’ user profile (i.e., abilities, demographics, and attitudes and motivations), the characteristics of the environment in which the learning is occurring (i.e., the presence of acute/chronic stressors, the characteristics of the learning environment and device location, and the presence of social support), and the characteristics of the technology itself (i.e., the device’s complexity, novelty, and usability). These factors then comprised an older adult’s individual supportive need, informing their personal facilitating conditions that can support initial and continued learning of the novel technology. The second study involved an in-depth qualitative evaluation of the framework through a semi-structured interview with 35 older adults regarding their learning experience of digital home assistants, an emerging technology that can provide a broad array of assistance with daily activities. This evaluation revealed that most subcomponents that comprised the PICS Framework were relevant in the specific context of older adults learning this technology. Regarding the older adult user profile component, most abilities (cognitive ability, perceptual ability, and technology proficiency), one demographic characteristic (age), and most aspects of attitudes and motivations (expectancy beliefs, subjective value, social influence) were all evaluated to be meaningful to older adults’ personal learning of digital home assistants and supported their inclusion within the framework. Less relevant for this context was the motor/psychomotor subcomponent, presumably because digital home assistants require few fine or gross motor movements for learning beyond the initial setup of the device. Moreover, some demographics components were not relevant for this sample (i.e., education, gender, and socioeconomic status), likely because they were a relatively homogenous group on those dimensions. One aspect of personality, emotional stability, was positively related to motivation to set up and learn the device, but more research is needed to confirm the motivational role of personality for this technology learning context. All subcomponents of the environmental characteristics (stressors, learning environment, social support) and technology characteristics were (complexity, novelty, usability) found to be relevant. We identified instructional facilitators and barriers relevant to older adults’ learning of their digital home assistants across three emergent categories: learning approaches, device instructions, and device experiences. Older adults were overwhelmingly positive toward the potential of personalized learning support for learning technology, believing this approach to be more effective and easier to use than their traditional learning methods. Together these studies provided insights for the composition, design, and potential of a personalized initial and continued support framework to facilitate successful learning of novel technologies by older adults. Moreover, these findings provided directions for future research to further evaluate the effectiveness of this framework to support older adults with improved learning outcomes so they may fully realize the benefits of technology use.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Educational Psychology

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2022

Author dc:creator

• Blocker, Kenneth A.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Rogers, Wendy A
• Morrow, Daniel G
• Lane, H. Chad
• Hale, Timothy M

• Technology
• Learning
• Older Adults
• Personalization

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2022 Kenneth Blocker

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/117790

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F117790