OLDER WOMEN'S VIEWS ON THEIR PARTICIPATION IN A BLENDED EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM USING FB ROOM PLATFORM

Several studies have found that elderly people have a difficulty in using social media platforms and smartphone apps due to a number of barriers that discourage them from engaging with technology. This study presents older women’s views regarding a twomonth blended (synchronous and asynchronous) learning course on using apps and social media on smartphones in their daily life. The design of the educational course was based on older adult women’s needs. The findings of the qualitative research indicate that older people’s educational needs are better met when they participate in an asynchronous e-learning environment, where they are given the opportunity to proceed at their own pace. Moreover, the results suggest that designers and educators can incorporate video tutorials (narration and subtitles) in the learning programs as an effective educational mean and use Facebook as a learning platform so as to engage learners and facilitate communication between educators and learners.


Introduction
The development of technology and the subsequent advent of smartphones can potentially improve the quality of older people's lives in a number of ways (Carpenter & Buday, 2007;Chen & Persson, 2002;White et al. 2002). An expanding number of studies suggest that the use of social media and internet training may enhance older adults' psychosocial well-being (Cotten, Ford, Ford, & Hale, 2012Shapira, Barak, & Gal, 2007;White et al. 1999).

Literature Review
Mobile devices have the potential to enrich the lives of older people. Smartphones and tablets offer access to the internet and a variety of applications that can help people stay in touch with others and acquire information relevant to their needs (Gao et al., 2015;Ma, et al., 2016). According to Tsai et al. (2015), mobile devices allow older adults to feel connected to the world and their families and up to date with current digital trends, to keep up with special interests that can help them develop positive attitudes toward social life, as well as, to pursue a meaningful lifestyle during late adulthood. Although the adoption of mobile devices by older adults has increased dramatically in recent years, the majority of older people only use limited functions and have not fully understood the beneficial aspects. Adult educators are aware of the need to provide educational activities for them that will help them learn how to use mobile devices to improve their quality of life. Most importantly, incentives need to be articulated to encourage older adults to become familiar with new technologies and ensure their continued use of them. After reviewing related literature, Mackowicz and Wnek-Gozdek (2016) highlighted three main reasons that motivate older people to undertake education opportunities for learning new technology: obtaining skills useful in daily life, acquiring new knowledge, and socialization. Learning topics associated with communication tools, social media, digital photography, health, and medicine, and financial management are especially intriguing and helpful for elderly learners (Boulton-Lewis et al., 2007;Zheng, Spears, Luptak, & Wilby, 2015;Klimova, Simonova, Poulova, Truhlarova, & Kuca, 2016;Mackowicz & Wnek-Gozdek, 2016;Kanakaris & Pavlis Korres, 2020). Therefore, it is important for instructional designers to design learning materials that meet the practical needs of older adult learners using mobile devices. Miller (2016) illustrated how learning content can be helpful for seniors toward mastering portable tablet devices so as to browse the web, handle (send/receive) emails, navigate social media, organize their calendars, read e-books, magazines and newspapers, record and edit videos, navigate maps, keep healthy, manage files, online security, etc. By tapping into these recommendations, senior education institutes should design courses focusing on these issues and their applications and encourage older adult learners to use mobile devices as ubiquitous learning tools.
Moreover, another way to help seniors get acquainted with smartphone applications is to develop manuals and tutorials that focus on ameliorating the basic learnability of mobile applications designed for older adults . Designing interactive video tutorials for the elderly that adapt to existing applications will help them learn mobile applications more independently and at their own pace (Chen et al, 2017).  demonstrated how many seniors, especially those without prior relevant experience, prefer video tutorials with embedded help text. Their findings also suggested that video tutorials used by elderly people should not be more than 2 minutes long, as seniors tend to forget what they have just watched and can find this material boring or tedious.
Due to the current trend of the rapidly ageing population, countries like Taiwan, where a white paper entitled "Towards an aged society: Policies on education for older adults" was published in 2006, are stressing the lifelong learning rights of older adults and highlighting the liabilities of all sectors (public, private, non-profit) with the aim of providing learning opportunities to the elderly and subsequently contribute to the successful aging of their citizens (Hung & Lu, 2014;Lin & Huang, 2013;Wang, 2017). The COVID-19 pandemic limited older people's access to face-to-face teaching and ignited a rapid move to online learning. Social media platforms such as Facebook provide a wide range of advantages for students and can be used as a supplementary tool for distance learning (Chugh & Ruhi, 2018).
The learning process in distance education works best when participants are involved in the activities of the online classroom and participate in the discussion that takes place. In addition, engaging and involving students in the various activities of the online classroom allows them to take control of their own learning (Manca & Delfino, 2021). By remotely engaging in online discussions, learner control is facilitated, since participants can choose who they engage with (Ulla & Perales, 2020). This means that learners become the centre of the learning process, instead of the instructor. The content of the learning can be determined by the learners who can also decide the nature of the communication. Furthermore, relevant studies emphasize that the integration of adult learning principles and the conditions for effective adult learning in an online learning environment should be a priority in the training of teachers who will be employed or are employed in adult e-learning programmes. (Pavlis Korres, Karalis, Leftheriotou, & Garcia Barriocanal, 2009;Pavlis Korres & Leftheriotou, 2016;Pavlis Korres & Leftheriotou, 2020). Social media platforms such as the Facebook could be used to enhance learner engagement in the learning process. Furthermore, Facebook has been found to be a potentially functional tool in social learning, distance learning, as well as in arts education. Distance learning instructors should adopt an interest in using Facebook, but only with suitable educational material. Therefore, using Facebook as an online educational platform during the COVID-19 pandemic facilitates active learning and enhances community building, which in turn can help mitigate feelings of "isolation" in students (Greenhow & Chapman, 2020;Ulla & Perales, 2021).

The Study
This study is a part of a post-doc research focusing on the educational needs of the elderly and, the design, implementation, and evaluation of an educational program on the use of smartphones along with the possibilities they offer in improving older adults' daily lives and promoting communication and social networking. Initially, research was conducted in order to determine the content of the program and other elements regarding its implementation (Pavlis Korres & Leftheriotou, 2020). The research was conducted in two Elderly Care Centers (E.C.C.), sited in different cities in the region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace in Greece. The Elderly Care Center provides elderly people with health care services, fitness programs, and a variety of educational programs. Initially, the research sample was comprised of 20 older people from the two E.C.C.s. and the results from this research showed that they want to learn how to use social media, web-banking, and how to send emails from their smart-phones during face-to-face lessons. After the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the participants in the research were reduced from 20 persons to 7 older women. Even though the original plan was to provide face-to-face lessons to the elderly, things changed after the unfortunate passing of two women who contracted the virus. As a result, after consulting with participants, the researcher decided to design a new blended educational program based on video lessons (asynchronous mode) and FB-Room (Facebook Room) (synchronous mode) and to incorporate educational material that participants could work with remotely, such as video lessons with narration via Youtube. The first step was to develop a pilot video lesson which would subsequently be evaluated be 2 women and one expert, who would provide feedback. The next step was to take the feedback into consideration and improve the video lessons. Overall, 8 videos were created, lasting between 1 minute and 15 seconds to 4 minutes and 15 seconds. The videos were created to meet the needs of the women, as determined during the needs assessment process, and their content is presented in Table 1. A blended (synchronous/asynchronous) teaching method based on the Facebook platform was chosen, where a closed group together with the Facebook Room covered the communication needs between the learners and educator. The duration of the course was eight weeks and the first week featured an introduction to the video lessons and instructions on how to use Facebook (FB) Room. The researcher prepared and provided video lessons with narration as well written instructions within the videos and the FB Room, created to promote communication between the educator and the learners. Each week, learners were provided with a video lesson that they studied at their own pace, at a time of their choosing. In a synchronous meeting through the Facebook Room, the learners and the educator communicated in real time discussed difficulties they were faced with during video tutorials and exchanged views and experiences.

Participants
The participants were 7 old women, aged between 61 and 74. Table 2 included the demographic profiles of the participants regarding age range and educational level. Due to its reduced size, the sample is not fully representative of elderly people, and thus no generalizations can be made, but it is interesting, in that it is self-representative and provides necessary and useful information for the design of a blended educational course that is being addressed to the elderly.

Research Methodology
The methodology that was chosen was the qualitative research approach (Cohen, Manion, & Morrison, 2013), which means that fundamental data was gathered using interviews as a research method. The interviews were conducted by the researcher via telephone and FB-Room by specific appointment with each interviewee. Each interview was semi-structured, lasted between 15 to 20 minutes and consisted of open-ended questions (Cohen, Manion, & Morrison, 2013) The research questions concerned the participants' views on whether the educational materials and the way they were presented met their needs, their views on modern education, and whether they preferred e-learning (modern and asynchronous) to face-to-face learning. Thematic analysis, a research method of describing and quantifying phenomena as well analyzing documents (Nowell et al., 2017;Braun & Clarke, 2012), was used to analyze the data. The thematic analysis allows the researcher to examine theoretical issues so as to enhance understanding of the data. By using the thematic analysis, it is possible to refine words into fewer content-related categories. It is assumed that when classified into the same categories, words and phrases share the same meaning (Elo & Kyngäs, 2008). Thematic analysis is a method that is mainly described as "a method for identifying, analyzing and reporting patterns (themes) within data" (Braun & Clarke,2006, p. 79). The aim is to achieve a concentrated and broad description of the phenomenon, and the result of the analysis is concepts or categories that describe the phenomenon. Usually, the scope of these concepts or categories is to create a model, conceptual system, conceptual categories (Stemler, 2015).

Findings and Discussion
For the reader's convenience, the answers to the main research questions are presented in figures/tables containing the basic codes and themes that emerged from the thematic analysis, while quotes from the interviews are also provided. Figure 1 presents the basic themes that emerged in relation to learners' views on the positive impact of video lessons. The thematic analysis shows that learners recognize that the asynchronous educational mode -specifically the video tutorials-which can be accessed anywhere and everywhere via YouTube, were effective and helped them understand the fundamentals of each topic. Among other things, participants mentioned: "These videos are a great tool for someone that wants to learn the basics" (L5), "Very good work, the videos can help anyone" (L3) and "The videos are very good I expect to be provided with more video tutorials" (L7). Video lessons met participants' expectations, "This was what I was expected"(L1), whereas according to L2, they were unexpectedly informative: "I didn't expect them to be like this, the videos gave me all the information that I needed». Given that the video lessons were created based on learners' needs and suggestions, the results were similar to Miller's findings (2016), showing that seniors learn better when courses are tailored to their needs and conducted through a suitable medium. Moreover, these findings are consistent with previous studies regarding the appeal of distance learning to older adults (Dorin, M, 2007;Githens, 2007;Mulenga & Liang, 2008). The abovementioned studies suggest that older people's needs are better addressed by asynchronous e-learning because the latter facilitates autonomous learning and working at one's own pace. This piece of information can be used when designing lessons on the use of smartphones for older people. In a similar vein, the findings of this study showed that, due to the ease of access via YouTube and the embedded narration and subtitles, video lessons might prove to be useful in a blended learning programme as they help participants learn easier and faster Chen et al, 2017). Women's views on the effectiveness of video lessons compared to face-to-face lessons tend to be similar, "I believe that they are almost on par with face-to-face lessons"(L4), and they also seemed to appreciate the flexibility in terms of time and location that they offer, "I watched most videos twice, but the best thing was that they were all on YouTube, which meant I could watch them whenever and wherever I wanted" (L3). This suggests that a properly designed educational program can be beneficial to elderly learners.
Participants' views on the main video features and the number of views each learner required are presented in Tables 3 and 4 respectively.  "I had to watch most video tutorials three times to understand the steps" 3 2 "I watched most video tutorials twice to fully comprehend them" 2 3 "I watched most videos twice, but the best thing was that they were all on YouTube, which meant I could watch them whenever and wherever I wanted" 2 4 "I had to watch the tutorials three times to learn all the steps" 3 5 "I watched the video tutorials only three times" 3 6 "I watched the tutorials three times to fully understand the process" 3 7 "In most cases, I watched the videos three times to be able to follow the steps" 3 The information in Tables 3 and 4 shows that the three main features based on which the tutorials were designed make them a very good learning tool, whereas participants seem to be able to learn the steps of the process by watching the videos up to three times on average. Learners were very pleased with the way the videos were produced and the features they offered, namely narration and subtitles, and the fact that they were on YouTube, which made them available at any time. These results are consistent with the findings of  and Chen et al. (2017), who concluded that videos should contain multiple pieces of information. These studies have also found that the duration of video lessons plays a very important role, as they can be tedious if they are too long. As shown in Table 1, 6 out of 8 videos that were used for this study were shorter than 2 minutes and 30 seconds, since the goal was for them to contain all the necessary information in the shortest possible time. As far as the speed of the video tutorials s concerned, participants claimed they were satisfied with it, as is the case with the written instructions, which they found conductive to the flow of the video lessons. Moreover, many of the women revealed they needed no more than 3 viewings per video lesson in order to feel confident they understood it. These findings are in line with former research (Chaffin & Harlow, 2005) supporting that older adults can acquire new abilities and skills in the same way younger ones can, but they normally learn at a slower pace and need more repetitions.
With respect to whether the video lessons met the learners' needs, women's views are presented in Figure 2.  Figure 2 shows that the video tutorials provided all the information the learners had requested, incorporating it in the best possible way. Among other things, participants said: "The videos provided the instructions I needed" (L4), "All the videos provided the help I needed" (L5). Moreover, the thematic analysis reveals that the video tutorials assisted learners in device use and familiarized them with applications. This is also evident in their comments: "These videos were exactly what I wanted. They helped me get over my fear of using applications" (L1), "The videos taught me how to use smartphones more easily" (L2), "The videos were excellent and made me understand that the smartphone is a very useful tool" (L7).

Video lessons
Helped in understanding how to use smart phones Helped in learning how to use FB to communicate with relatives and friends Helped in geting familiar with smartphone applications Additionally, not only did participants learn how to use the medium (FB Room) during the session, but some of them adopted it in their personal life in order to communicate with their loved ones. One woman in particular stated: "Thanks to these videos I can now talk to my grandson on Facebook" (L3). The above results are corroborated by those of Tsai et al. (2015) and Mackowicz and Wnek-Gozdek (2016), who suggest that older people are motivated to learn new things when they can use them in their everyday life, particularly when they learn things about maintaining or strengthening their family and social relationships through communication with relatives and friends. Women's views on the synchronous learning mode via the Facebook Room, are illustrated in Figure 3.  Figure 3, the results form data processing revealed that, with the exception of one case, learners embraced Facebook Room as a teaching tool, and even though some of them found it difficult to navigate at first, they soon felt more comfortable and even compared distance learning during the pandemic to the traditional classroom. Four women, in particular, said: "Even though the class was moved online, we were still able to learn new things" (L2), "FB Room was a bit different from the classroom, especially at the beginning, but the goal is the same. To learn new things" (L3), "At the beginning I was not happy, but after the second online session, things got better and I got used to it" (L4), "Trying new things always seems difficult at first, but in the end, I felt distance learning is not so strenuous after all" (L5). Further, with the guidance of the instructor, learners became increasingly engaged in the learning process. According to two older women, for example: "The educator used the same teaching methods they use in the classroom, but the medium -FB room-was different" (L1), "FB room was not the same as the classroom, but the educator and the learners made it happen and we managed to continue the training program throughout the COVID-19 pandemic" (L5). These results are consistent with the findings of Greenhow and Chapman (2020) and Ulla and Perales (2021), who suggested that Facebook as an educational platform can promote active learning and community building and it can help reduce learners' feelings The educator still uses the same methods and speaks to us like they do during face-to-face lessons" (L4), "Using FB Room in the learning process helped us become familiar with a new communication tool without losing contact with other learners and the educator" (L5). By the second week of the learning program, more and more learners had started to behave in the same way as during face-to-face lessons. These findings are consistent with those of Manca and Delfino (2021) and Ulla and Perales (2020), who concluded that when learners are engaged in online discussions during distance learning, they start adopting the same behaviors they had in the traditional classroom, they take control of their own learning and they are placed in the centre of the learning process, rather than the educator. Further, the results showed that some of the learners started using FB Room as a communication tool to connect with relatives and friends. One woman, in particular, said: "Our educator showed us how to use this great tool, FB Room, which makes distance learning feel like we are in the classroom, and we also found a new way to easily communicate with more than one person" (L7). Although most learners found Facebook-Room to be a very good communication tool, one of them found it hard to navigate and said they had to use the landline multiple times, in order to contact the educator: "In my opinion, FB Room was a difficult communication platform, although I learned how to partially use it by the end of the course. During the lessons, I sometimes had to use the landline to communicate with the educator" (L6).
Reaching the end of this section in order to help the reader understand better the findings of this study the themes that emerged from the data process are presented in whole in Figure 5.

Future Research
Future research could further investigate important factors in adult education, such as the standards that educational material for mobile phones should meet, learner training on the safe use of the internet and the use of social media to develop social relationships. Additionally, future research could focus on intergenerational learning, where younger and older learners can learn together and from each other by exploring historical events and customs and practices that are relevant to them.

Conclusion
This study has shown that mobile phones and social media can be used to educate older people on the use of apps in their daily lives to promote communication and social networking. Τhe appropriate design of an educational program, which should be tailored to the educational needs of the elderly to ensure that the optimal education method and material are adopted, plays a crucial role in the effectiveness of the education process.
According to the results of the present study, older women prefer asynchronous learning, as it offers flexibility in terms of time, space and pace, while they also acknowledge the advantages of synchronous learning and highlight the important role of the instructor in facilitating learning and promoting communication between learners. Moreover, the results showed, that designers and educators can plan learning programs by including short video tutorials with narration and subtitles as an effective educational mean and by using Facebook as a learning platform in order to engage learners and promote educatorlearner communication.