Our special goal was to implement learning programs from foreign universities and motivate seniors to study at our institution. It is necessary to prepare seniors for online education along side the classical one and to use new procedures that we can apply according to the needs of seniors. We wanted to show seniors that common IT devices can also be used in education and that we can help them develop their skills. It was important to see the programs where seniors in another country were re-engaged in education even after the pandemic. Another goal was to simplify the process of applying and involving seniors in education in our university environment. The innovation of the programs due to the pandemic also monitored the use for the future with regard to seniors‘ needs. We wanted to establish collaboration between organizations and improve the quality of learning and teaching for older adults. In the European framework, we have not previously cooperated with institutions in Portugal, but based on a preliminary meeting, we wanted to develop further contacts for the development of seniors‘ education. We expected the development of cooperation in the field of educational approaches as well as within the Erasmus project, too.
The project Senior Education after the Pandemic is a short project, that was carried out for sharing problems about online and distance learning for seniors. At the time of the pandemic, older learners lacked many digital skills, which created the need to gain experience abroad. Our interest was to learn new approaches and practices using mapping and assessment of possibilities to development education for seniors within the university programs including the use of digital technologies. At the universities, there was a decline in the number of older students due to the pandemic for various reasons. One reason was the lack of skills in ICT and thus the slow adaptation of seniors to the changed conditions in education. During the pandemic we lost almost 2/3 of our senior students because they were missing digital skills and educational practices that needed to be used by lecturers for senior students. Institutional staff also needed to learn from each other and find verified procedures for these special times and situations which the pandemic brought to our society. To solve the tasks of the project and implement mobilities, we selected institutions offering programs in Portugal.