More digital skills for volunteers

On February 18, we organized an online meeting in collaboration with Cybersoek and Leef en Leer! about the digital skills of volunteers, as we noticed in the past year that many volunteers lack digital skills to stay in touch with the organization or to do their volunteer work (differently).

The turnout was great: almost 40 volunteer supervisors attended this meeting. A wide range of welfare organizations, cultural institutions, and nature associations were present. The purpose of the meeting was twofold:

1. Share information about the current offer
2. Assessing the needs in the field

Polls

An inventory through polls showed that volunteers from the organizations present struggle the most with video calling via Zoom, Teams, or another platform (55%). A significant portion also lacks the necessary tools, such as a computer, smartphone, or webcam (21%).

The reason volunteers need digital skills is mainly to stay in touch with the coordinator and each other (48%), but also to organize activities online (21%) and to stay in touch with participants/clients/students (14%).

The main question is actually: do volunteers want to become more digitally skilled? Or is it more of a wish from the supervisor? The poll revealed that 60% answered that motivation varies. 27% said that volunteers are definitely motivated. This indicates that motivating volunteers to become more digitally skilled requires attention.

Digital learning preferably physical

The difficulty of helping people become more digitally skilled is that it is best done in person. And that is almost impossible now. People who have some digital skills can be assisted over the phone, with an online training, or with a guide via email. But those who lack basic skills need a physical explanation.

Live and Learn!

Live and Learn! is a platform for residents of Amsterdam who want to work on language, arithmetic, and computer skills. Fouzia Louchahi – Ben Boussounna shows that through the Live and Learn! website, you can find an overview of organizations in the city that offer courses and hold consultation hours. You can filter by district and student’s level, for example. At the moment, physical group meetings are not possible. On Live and Learn, you will also find tips for practicing online.Check out the website of Live and Learn!The OBA also has aFirst Aid Consultation(first aid for online) for volunteers who need one-on-one help.

Cybersoek

Cybersoek is an urban organization that focuses on increasing the digital skills of all residents of Amsterdam. Kim Erkens tells us more about it.

Cybersoek offers free computer assistance, either by phone or by appointment. Additionally, they provide this assistance in various languages. Moreover, there are digital consultation hours in East, South, and Southeast Amsterdam. This assistance is suitable for people with specific issues. For example, if they don’t know how to send an email with an attachment or how to install Zoom on their computer.Check out the website of Cybersoek.

Working with Zoom

Because many organizations indicate that they would like to do more with Zoom, we provide here a number of links to videos and tutorials.

Videos explaining Zoom:

• Zoom: app on your smartphone
• Zoom part 1: joining on your laptop or computer
• Zoom part 2: audio and video

Links to manuals about Zoom (PDFs):

• Zoom Students Manual
• Teaching Online Getting Started with Zoom 1
• Teaching Online Getting Started with Zoom 2
• Teaching Online Getting Started with Zoom 3

Proposal offer for volunteers

Once the corona measures have been relaxed, Cybersoek can offer the following urban physical activities. Financing still needs to be found for this.

• Mini basic courses, tailor-made based on the support questions. Multiple themes will be addressed focusing on the group’s support questions. (five participants per group)
• Special consultation hours for volunteers (one-on-one)
• Train the trainer: this course is for organizations that want to offer digital skills as a program and professionalize it. This training covers tips, tricks, tools, and the Cybersoek method.

Cybersoek can also develop custom offerings for a group of volunteers from an organization. This is done on a quotation basis.

Brainstorm

After the presentations of these two organizations, the participants split into groups to further discuss the needs of volunteers, the supervisors, and to what extent the offerings of Cybersoek and Leef en Leer! align with these needs. The following points emerged from these discussions:What do the supervisors see in the volunteers:

• There is a sense of shame among volunteers
• People do not always give the real reason for their absence, precisely out of shame.
• The self-confidence of volunteers is decreasing
• Volunteers sometimes have old equipment
• Volunteers do not quickly admit that they are not digitally skilled enough
• There is sometimes panic
• Volunteers panic about computers/digital actions
• Sometimes basic knowledge is lacking: forwarding an email, opening an attachment, typing something in Word, and saving it.
• It often has to do with language: then they don’t understand words like ‘click’ and ‘attach’.
• Whether it has to do with age
• Not everyone wants to become digitally skilled, there is fear, afraid of making mistakes.
• The issue of not being digitally skilled is not only relevant in times of corona, but is now becoming more apparent.

Role of the volunteer coordinator:

• It is an additional task to help volunteers with this.
• It requires knowledge to explain things like: logging in and using Zoom / Teams
• You cannot view your volunteer’s screen, which makes it difficult to help.
• During an online meeting, it takes time for everyone to log in.
• Volunteers are dropping out because they are not digitally skilled.
• Lack of equipment is a problem
• Specific knowledge is required to be able to help people
• Patience is also required
• But the supervisors have also achieved a lot for each other recently. Like collecting laptops to give to volunteers.
• Keeping in touch via phone takes up a lot of time
• Helping from a distance is very difficult.

Wishes:

• Equipment
• Helpdesk
• Both 1-on-1 help and explanation in groups
• More digitally skilled volunteers
• Mini-course on various skills, e.g. Zoom or Teams
• Remote assistance tools (Team Viewer difficult to install on volunteer’s computer)
• Training for supervisors

This inventory shows a wide variety of support requests and different levels of digital (in)competence. The volunteer offering will therefore need to be broad and partly tailored. The topic of fear, shame, and resistance is also important to consider in developing new offerings. Furthermore, it is noticeable that the guides have an additional task, and they could also use support in this.

As soon as there is new offering in the field of becoming digitally skilled, we will keep you informed through this website!