Delivering support

How we deliver Digital Champion support has changed throughout the course of the pandemic. Usually, Digital Champion support would be face-to-face, however, lockdown restrictions have meant a lot of this has been done remotely i.e. over the phone or on a video calling platform. Regardless of how you deliver support, there are some general principles you can follow to make this go smoothly. 

Top Tips 

• Start with an introductory call/meeting to talk about what the person wants to learn and if they have any accessibility requirements. Think about what the ‘hook’ will be to help them learn new skills. 
• When thinking about accessibility requirements you’re better to show, rather than tell. Some people may not want to or feel comfortable disclosing an impairment. For example, “Does this green screen work better for you”, and “I’ll try turning on the speech function so you can try talking to the device.” 
• Make space for non-digital discussions. Remember that some learners may be isolated or lonely, and may just want to chat initially. 
• Check what fears they have about going online. You don’t need to specifically address these fears right now; but acknowledge them and make a note. You can come back to these when you get into support. 
• Practice with a colleague or friend in advance. Ask them to forget everything they know about being online and try to talk them through some basic tasks. It’s even better if you ask them to be as difficult as they can be! This will help you reflect on some of the things you may take for granted when you’re explaining a process.  
• Don’t use jargon. For example, ‘go to the home-screen’. Instead, explain what the home-screen is and how to navigate to it. Check out our Common Digital Terms section for more information.  
• Reassure them that if they make a mistake it’s ok, they haven’t ‘broke the internet’. 

Face-to-face support

Working face to face with learners can look different for each digital champion; you might be working one to one, or as part of a group. You might have dedicated time to explore digital skills, or it might be a small piece of a larger activity (e.g. as part of a cooking class, a social group etc.) 

"We had a community cafe just before Christmas, we thought that was the perfect opportunity to introduce our Digital Champions. We had a stand, a pop-up banner and some balloons, the Champs wore t-shirts saying: ‘ask me how I can cut your costs’. The hook was about saving money at Christmas. We’ll be doing that at all of our community cafes going forward."

Digital Champion

Top Tip 

Sit on your hands! Don’t be tempted to take a device off someone and “do it” for them. Most learners enjoy learning by doing and with time, patience and clear descriptions/instructions, you can talk through what someone needs to do to get the most out of their device without ever touching it! 

Keeping things informal and comfortable is key, however Digital Champions will have to balance this with keeping them and learners safe. Before holding a face-to-face learning session, you should consult your organisations policies and procedures on safe working practices.

"The informal environment and set up of the project where people could drop in and stay as long as they liked, where they were able to make their own hot drinks and where there was space to interact and socialise with others as well as space for workstations and laptops. Also, the project took place in a building well known to the local community which was easy to access and a comfortable, airy and large space."

Digital Champion

Remote support 

A key challenge for Digital Champions during lockdown restrictions has been delivering support remotely. Normally, a Digital Champion would support someone with their digital skills face-to-face in a setting where you can both work through tasks together on the same device. There are some challenges to delivering support remotely: 

• You can’t see the same screen as your learner 
• You may not be familiar with the device they are using  
• You may not have access to the same device  
• You need to be careful about how you use language and jargon 

Top Tips 

• Book calls in advance so that your learner has time to get comfortable and charge their device. 
• Keep calls limited to around 30 minutes so the learner doesn’t become overwhelmed. 
• Ascertain what kind of device they are using. It’s unlikely that you’ll have the exact same device but most common apps work the same way across all platforms. There are also resources available online to help you navigate different devices, such as this Chromebook simulator and Apple Teacher (which has iOS step-by-step guides e.g. using the control centre). You can also Google the device they are using and look for the user manual which may be of benefit for you.  
• Ask them to describe what they see on their screen.​ 
• Don’t say ‘you should see..’ because if they don’t see it they’ll think they’re doing it wrong if they can’t see it.  

• Talk them through how to put their phone on speaker, if it has that function. This gives them more flexibility to use their device. 
• Once they’ve built up some confidence you could introduce ‘screen-sharing’ on video-calling platforms like Zoom or Teams. This will help you talk through more complex tasks on the same screen. 

"There was one chap who got his first tenancy for a flat quite soon into lockdown and he had no cooking skills at all. At that point he wasn’t able to really get any support from other agencies about how to learn to do that. He joined our cooking class online every Wednesday and he was able to learn skills and learn how to cook, and now he’s absolutely fine to get involved and cook his own dinners."

Digital Champion

The next stages of your support will depend on what the learner wants to get from being online. If you’ve already covered the Foundation Digital Skills you can move onto Essential Digital Skills for Life. See our section on Essential Digital Skills for further ideas and resources.  

Blended support 

One legacy of the pandemic is a move towards blended approaches to delivering support. Many organisations are now exploring different ways of bringing people together in physical spaces, while retaining some digital delivery. Digital delivery may not be for everyone, but it can help reach some people who have barriers around geography or engaging in a face-to-face context, helping you reach more people. A blended approach can give a Digital Champion the flexibility to better meet the needs of their learners. Face-to-face may be better suited to someone who has never used a device before, and remote or digital support may help unblock something for a more confident learner in a few minutes.  

"While we are delighted to be seeing each other in real life again, and have lots of new ‘offline’ projects kicking off, we can’t imagine ourselves ever returning to the way things were before. This blended model is the best of both worlds, for us, and our learners. It’s stretching us, expanding our horizons and that’s really what community learning is all about."

Digital Champion

Professional boundaries 

Being a Digital Champion comes with a large degree of responsibility. We’re responsible for introducing people to the online world and making sure they know how to stay safe. There is also a power imbalance that we need to be aware of. As Digital Champions we are confident users of the internet, and our learners are brand new to it. This means that they have to put a great deal of faith in us. More faith than they will even realise themselves.  

As such, it’s important that we act in good faith at all times, and demonstrate positive internet behaviours. Most Digital Champions will be working through an organisation, and as such you will be following your organisational policies and procedures which will always take precedent.  

Here are some best practice pointers for Digital Champions to set professional boundaries:  

• Before you start providing support you should set your own boundaries to protect yourself. This means having a work account, or one separate from your personal account, to do your Digital Champion support. This helps keep your work boundaried and separate from your personal life and personal online presence.  
• Screen sharing is an incredibly useful tool, especially if you are delivering support remotely. In the first instance, it’s better for the Digital Champion to share their screen. If you need the learner to share their screen you should explain that you will be able to see their screen and everything they are doing and everything they have open. They should only share their screen once they have been fully informed.  
• If you are screen sharing from a work device ensure that all your work documents and apps are closed down. As employees, we have legal obligations around Data Protection and not sharing any personal data we may have access to in work, even if it’s inadvertently.  
• In some projects remote access apps are used e.g. Team-Viewer. If this is installed on both devices you are able to ‘take control’ of the other device. This can be helpful for demonstrating how to do certain things, but it should only be done in line with your organisational IT policy and with informed consent of the learner. We generally advise against this approach and favour screen-sharing as an alternative. This is to protect both the learner and the Digital Champion.   
• Never ask for more information than you require. A Digital Champion should not request passwords or excessive personal data from a learner. For example, if a learner wants help to setup online banking we can support them with the process, but they should enter all their personal data themselves. If you are doing this remotely and sharing screen, the learner should be asked to stop sharing their screen at any point they have to enter personal data. This is also a good opportunity to reinforce online safety messages. You can also try a banking demo app to help build their confidence like this one from RBS.  
• Digital skills support won’t always be separate from other things going on in a person’s life. You may find that your learner talks to you about their own wellbeing and personal issues. This will vary depending on what kind of Digital Champion your are (embedded, professional, volunteer). Seek support for your own emotional wellbeing if you’ve had a difficult or challenging session with a learner.  
• If you have a safeguarding of welfare concern you should escalate this through your organizational policies and procedures. Safeguarding is the same in the digital space as it is offline.