Introduction Older adults are defined as immigrants of the digital age, the middle‐aged as hybrids, and the young as natives. However, after participating in training programs designed for the older adults, this situation may change in their favor. In the third age universities opened to support the active aging of the older adults, courses are organized in many areas from technology to sports. The aim of this research is to investigate the digital competencies of older adults studying at Sinop Third Age University in 2024–2025 academic fall semester. The study was conducted with 134 older adults. The data were collected with the “Descriptive Characteristics Form” and the “Digital Competence Inventory for the Older Adults” to determine the sociodemographic characteristics of the participants. Methods In the analysis of the data, SPSS 24 program was used. Continuous variables are shown as mean and standard deviation, and categorical variables are shown as frequency and percentage. Mann–Whitney U ‐test and Kruskal–Wallis H ‐test were used to determine the relationship between scale scores and some sociodemographic variables. Results In this research, 77.6% of the participants were female, and 46.3% were university graduates. The participants′ information literacy scale mean score of the “Digital Competence Inventory for the Older Adults” was calculated as 8.11 ± 1.303; 29.67 ± 4.206 for communication and collaboration; 13.71 ± 1.715 for security; and 12.49 ± 1.957 for problem solving. Scores on the digital competence inventory were found to be statistically significantly higher in the 50–59 age group and in those with a university degree ( p < 0.05). Conclusion This study demonstrates that older adults are not a homogeneous group in terms of digital competence. Significant differences were observed across age and education levels, whereas no meaningful differences were found by gender or marital status. The findings indicate that third age universities can contribute to digital inclusion by providing structured educational opportunities for older adults. Rather than uniform approaches, interventions should be tailored to the characteristics of different groups within the older adult population. Overall, the results highlight the importance of evidence‐based strategies in supporting digital competence in later life.
Bayra et al. (Thu,) studied this question.