In the meantime we have the Internet and the possibilities to learn using the Personal Computer. We call this method: "Virtual Learning".

Already more than twenty or thirty years ago there were offers of correspondence courses (Fernstudium) by some universities or other institutions of education. With the coming of the Internet it was clear, that such studies should be offered in the Internet.

Nowadays special courses or even full-studies are offered by some universities or other institutions of education for professional training. But these procedures are used by a large number of companies also for further professional development of their employees.

Also for seniors is this method of e-learning is very important as there are some as-pects which are convenient specially for elder people:

• E-Learning is not connected with a special time to visit a lesson - everybody can learn at that time he /she wants to do,


• E-Learning is always offered at home via the Personal Computer - nobody has to leave the house to go to the education centre,


• You don't need to pay for driving to the education centre, you have to pay for the connection to the Internet which is usually cheaper than going by car or train and also save a lot of time, which can be used for learning,


• People are learning alone, not within a group, but there will always be a tutor, who can be contacted by e-mail, by phone or by a discussion meeting like Pal-talk, Netmeeting or chat-conference.

• you decide about time of learning in conformity with personal situation,
  
• you learn as long as you are able to learn and to appreciate the new things,
  
• it is up to the tutor to motivate his / her "students" for learning,

• you have no pressure from outside for learning, therefore it needs a lot of dis-cipline not to do other things but to learn during the intended time,
  
• you have no real contact to the other students in your lesson, you can only contact them by e-mail, phone or chat-conference,
  
• you have to organise and buy the needed technical equipment (headset, nec-essary software).

During our studies as senior students we had the first contact to e-learning via a seminar at ZAWiW in summer 2002, called "E-Learning - for people 50 + ?".

In Autumn 2002 we started an e-learning-seminar to learn how to build a homepage via the Microsoft-Program: FRONTPAGE 2000, which had been offered by seniors in Kiel in Germany via Internet, to find under: www.senioren-lernen-online.de . In this learning-platform there are for example following courses to be found:

• Using the PC in Your "Private Office": Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Works etc.,
  
• Using the PC for Web-Design: Preparation of Graphics for Homepages, Preparation of Homepages by different editors,
  
• Using the PC for several hobbies: Research of Family-Charts by Internet, Global Communication, Platforms for Internet-Presentations by Seniors.

The whole e-learning-procedure is be accompanied by tutors, virtual meetings every week or every two weeks using an electronic classroom (Centra), Paltalk, Net-meeting or having contacts via e-mail. - In any case it is also part of the job of the tutor to motivate all senior-students of the special course not to be only a member of the learning-group but to fulfill the offered learning-exercises.

The content of each course is normally offered in a booklet, which is offered not only by the senior-tutors, but can be bought from the "KnowWare - Publishing - Com-pany: www.knowware.de .

The tutors are preparing special tasks of learning-exercises, which should be worked through by the students. In addition the tutors are publishing "tips and tricks" to find additional information to the theme. Furthermore a consultation is possible by e-mail. During the meeting in an electronic classroom the tutor provides information and also answers questions of the students.

The results of this kind of e-learning is very positive and can only be advised for other learning-projects for the future.