Promoting ICT skills through online services: Case study of video use for adult education in municipalities

Abstract

The usage of video communication in public services can alleviate some of the existing problems these services face in their adoption and also help in increasing the level of outreach to citizens. In this article we focus on the usage of video-to-video (V2V) communication in municipality services for ICT education of senior citizens. For this purpose, our study focuses on determining criteria that are important for both the teachers and citizens in using such an innovative service. This paper reports on the findings from focus group consultations conducted with teachers and students, in this case senior citizens, of a municipality in Spain who was piloting the use of V2V services for adult education. The research identified several criteria relevant for consideration when deploying V2V as part of a local government service portfolio, of which, trust, quality of service and convenience emerged as common for all stakeholders involved.