Geriatric Education
Date Published March 10, 2026
Project Date December 21, 2021
Student-created Facebook videos teaching assistive technologies, engaging seniors during pandemic isolation.
| This project, presented as the work of Jennifer Moore in collaboration with colleagues at the Arkansas Colleges of Health Education (ACHE) and the Arkansas Geriatric Education Collaborative, documented an innovative educational response to the constraints imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The initiative engaged occupational and physical therapy students and ten community-dwelling older adults to research, develop, and disseminate 27 short video vignettes demonstrating the use of assistive technologies (AT) to support self-care, home management, community engagement, and leisure participation. Because senior adults were encouraged to isolate during the pandemic, the team chose Facebook as the distribution platform to maximize reach and accessibility for older adults seeking practical strategies to live safely and independently. The student–senior partnerships produced content that combined lived experience with clinical and educational insight, producing resources that were both instructional and relatable for older adult viewers. As of January 2023, the 27 video vignettes achieved a total of 17,204 views on Facebook, demonstrating substantial reach beyond the ten individualized sessions with participating seniors. The most-viewed vignette, “Lighting and Magnification,” exceeded 1,000 views, and “Sewing” received 992 views, while the least-viewed vignette, “Fishing,” still reached 147 views. Viewer responses indicated active engagement: older adult viewers contacted ACHE to inquire about purchasing assistive devices after viewing the videos; they shared information with family members and others; some made purchases of devices after learning about them; and the videos served as a resource for finding AT assistance for older adults. Importantly, the senior adults who presented in the videos reported a better understanding of the assistive technologies after participating, suggesting reciprocal benefits for both learners and older adult collaborators. The project’s outcomes point to several important conclusions: creating short, focused video vignettes and sharing them via social media can extend the educational impact of small, community-based instructional activities to a much broader audience; social media distribution during a period of isolation can maintain and even expand community engagement around practical health and independence topics; and student-led, community-engaged projects can simultaneously educate future clinicians, empower older adult participants, and generate resources that other older adults can access and act upon. The work attributed to Jennifer Moore and colleagues thus provides a practical model for integrating geriatric education, assistive technology instruction, community partnership, and social media dissemination to support older adults’ independence in times when traditional in-person programming may be limited. |
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