Welcome to section two of the One Digital observational and practice based learning report (2017-18), working with Digital Champions. Section 2 of the full report is available at the bottom of this page.

The Community of Practice carried out a range of good practice activities to capture learning, these included:

• Face to face learning and virtual learning sessions
• Internal Project Leads discussions
• Larger events for wider partners interested in digital inclusion
• Informal use of Slack and email to share practice queries
• Project visits and direct discussions with digital inclusion practitioners
• Workshops and network sessions led by One Digital partners.

Learning points covered in this section:

• Activity levels of Champions can be monitored easily through the Digital Champions Network. It’s useful to understand how many people are being supported by each Champion
• Digital skills training that involves a mixture of face to face & online training is most effective
• The most popular training provided by the Digital Unite Digital Champions Network was the CPD accredited Digital Champion Essentials course and training to help someone with an accessibility need
• A self-help approach and a culture of continuous learning helps Digital Champions build the confidence and motivation of their learners to engage with being online.  Assessing digital skills training needs can be done through the Essential Digital Skills Framework and Toolkit
• Digital Champions benefit from having information on other digital skills training opportunities locally so they can signpost learners who want to learn more and develop their skills further
• Understanding what motivates people and what time they have available to become a Digital Champion is key to running a successful Digital Champion project
• Digital Champions recruiting other Champions is a great way to build capacity and skills in digital inclusion projects
• Encouraging Digital Champions to reflect on their role helps projects to understand the Champion(s) support needs, improving their impact and satisfaction with their role
• Digital motivators supporting groups of Digital Champions as digital inclusion ambassadors are proving effective in building project capacity
• Informal Digital Champions (families & friends) can play a key role in local communities it can be more difficult to monitor and support them in this crucial role
• Embedded Digital Champions, who often work in customer facing roles with groups who are digitally excluded, can be invaluable in improving uptake of digital services.  They can find the role challenging needing time to understand how this can work within their service and for the people they support
• Supporting learners who have English as a second language is effective if Champions are recruited from within the relevant community (language) group
• Digital Champions projects within organisations, supporting in-work Essential Digital Skills, are increasingly important as digital change requires all staff to develop their digital competency and skills.

Read section two of the full report here:

Observational and practice based learning report: section 2