Hasegawa Masashi

An online questionnaire was administered to 143 university students to clarify their perception of the elderly and its related factors. Consequently, the elderly that formed the basis of the students’ perception regarding older adults were in the following order: “grandparents” > “the elderly in the community” ≥“the elderly in various media.” Furthermore, the students’ perception of the older adults was related to “frequent contact with grandparents,” “quarrel with grandparents,” “pleasant activity with the elderly in the community,” “training session offered by the elderly in the community,” “experience of being scolded by the elderly in the community,” “contents of various media for respect for the elderly,” and “contents of various media for the care of the elderly.” Our findings suggest that experiences with grandparents and older people in the community and various media may play an essential role in having a more positive perception of the elderly for students.

Based on a paper aimed to document the pioneering use of Blended Learning and Instructional Design published in March 2021, an attempt was made to improve one compulsory subject in the Postgraduate Schools of YPU. The goal of improving the class called ‘Quality of Life (QOL)’ was to show a model to be used at Postgraduate level for mostly adult learners so that they could access the class from their workplaces or homes. The construction of the whole class needed to be reviewed, instead of just utilizing an interactive online ICT tool. This paper also tries to present an idea for a certificate program based on the above QOL class. Yamaguchi Prefectural University promotes four educational principles, including “respect for human nature,” “emphasis on citizens’ perspectives,” “co-existence with the community,” and “response to globalization”. The focus on humanities is crystalized on the teaching subject, QOL, as mentioned above. ‘Quality of Life’ covers the examination of the quality of everyday life in today’s changing world to diverse life stages, and then into every type of lives in nature and around the globe. By placing the QOL class as the core and adding one or two classes, it is assumed that the certificate course could be started by connecting issues in local towns to innovative solutions in wider society.