Survey on virtual coaching for older adults

Abstract

Virtual coaching has emerged as a promising solution to extend independent living for older adults. A virtual coach system is an always-attentive personalized system that continuously monitors user’s activity and surroundings and delivers interventions – that is, intentional messages – in the appropriate moment. This article presents a survey of different approaches in virtual coaching for older adults, from the less technically supported tools to the latest developments and future avenues for research. It focuses on the technical aspects, especially on software architectures, user interaction and coaching personalization. Nevertheless, some aspects from the fields of personality/social psychology are also presented in the context of coaching strategies. Coaching is considered holistically, including matters such as physical and cognitive training, nutrition, social interaction and mood.

User Centered Virtual Coaching for Older Adults at Home Using SMART Goal Plans and I-Change Model

“…This is also the case for the study by Gordienko et al (2017) [ 8 ], which also focused on the same aspects, but they are far from Siewiorek’s vision about what a VCS constitutes. In a recent survey, Lete et al (2020) [ 9 ] also found limited technological development on virtual coaching for older adults. More recently, thanks to several research projects funded in 2017 by the European Research and Innovation Action (RIA) on virtual coaching for older adults, more technologically sophisticated systems have started to emerge.…”

Virtual Coaches

“…While coaching as a face-to-face conversation is the traditional and arguably most common format, virtual coaching refers to remote coaching in a broader sense and coaching conducted by autonomous systems in a narrow sense. Predominantly driven by progress in the field of AI, there is a clear trend towards the last type of coaching (Tropea et al 2019 ; Lete et al 2020 ; Graßmann and Schermuly 2021 ). Nevertheless, combining face-to-face coaching with remote or autonomous coaching in an alternating way is still conceivable and referred to by Geissler et al ( 2014 ) as “Blended coaching”.…”

“…Nevertheless, combining face-to-face coaching with remote or autonomous coaching in an alternating way is still conceivable and referred to by Geissler et al ( 2014 ) as “Blended coaching”. The different types can be enriched further with data gathered by digital devices which are placed on the user’s body (also called wearables), in the user’s environment (e.g., smart objects), or sensed data stored in databases (e.g., weather data) (Lete et al 2020 ). We call this data enrichment of the coaching process that enables a high degree of context-awareness “digital ubiquity”.…”

“…Last but not least, the recent COVID-19 pandemic additionally showcased the need for VCs as an alternative to traditional face-to-face interventions. Against this background and driven by the potential and promises of VCs, research has recently engaged in developing and understanding VC applications (Tropea et al 2019 ; Lete et al 2020 ; Graßmann and Schermuly 2021 ).…”

Improving Effectiveness of a Coaching System through Preference Learning

“…The SAAM coaching system is a coaching system mainly targeted at the elderly that aims to support its users to continue living independently and comfortably for as long as possible. In contrast to typical AAL coaching approaches [21], it does not exclusively rely on directly delivering the coaching messages to users, but primarily focuses on delivering it to their social circles: family, friends, neighbors, and organized caregivers.…”