Development of counselling for older adults at the University of Ljubljana: Individualized content support to improve digital literacy

In this paper, we summarize the experiences and results of our research on the first two years of the implementation of individualized intergenerational content-based counsel­ling for older adults in the field of digital literacy and digital competences, which we piloted at the University of Ljubljana in the autumn of 2022. The counselling is designed as reverse mentoring, as the counsellors are computer science students who help older adults (55+) overcome difficulties in using digital technology. In the first two years, the 164 older adults (16 men and 148 women) involved in this study participated in the co­unselling. The sessions were led by five counsellors and an equal number of observers who monitored the process and kept detailed records of each session. We methodically monitored the progress of the counselling sessions, evaluated them and then produ­ced guidelines for conducting individual counselling sessions for older adults. The most frequent questions asked by participants related to the use of smartphones, in particular the organization and editing of photos. The experience gained shows that this approach is effective in promoting digital literacy among older adults.