digital literacy in the philippines: a pilot project literacy in the philippines: a pilot project...

Good Things Foundation(previously known as Tinder Foundation)

Digital Literacy in the Philippines: a pilot project

July 2016

Digital Literacy in the Philippines: a pilot

IntroductionTechnology has and will continue to transform and disrupt the lives of billions of people around the world. Yet despite its ever-growing presence, there are 63 million people in the Philippines who lack the basic digital skills necessary to take advantage of it. Good work has already been done to ensure that the digital divide is narrowing as both infrastructure and digital skills improve, and millions of people in the Philippines get online and develop digital literacy every year. But we know that the digital divide is also getting deeper, as more businesses digitise their products and services and more employers expect basic digital skills of their employees. The consequences of not being digitally literate are growing rapidly.

Good Things Foundation, together with ITU and the Philippines Government, delivered a pilot project focused on helping people in the Philippines to develop their digital literacy. The aim of the pilot was to work in partnership with Tech4ED centres in the Philippines and to explore the effectiveness of Learn My Way, the online learning platform for basic digital skills created by Good Things Foundation, in the Philippines context. The pilot project was delivered with no new funding, with partners utilising their existing resources.

The following report provides an overview of the lessons learned during the pilot.


Digital literacy in the Philippines: the pilot project

Good Things Foundation (previously known as Tinder Foundation) is a UK charity which supports digitally and socially excluded people to improve their lives through digital. In the UK, Good Things Foundation has reached people at scale through the leadership of over 5000 local centres across the UK, creating a strong network for digital literacy. The centres reach deep into communities to help people gain the support and skills they need to change their lives and overcome social challenges. Since 2010, over 2 million people have been supported through the network to cross the digital divide, moving out of digital exclusion. An important part of the delivery model has been the creation of an online learning platform, Learn My Way.

Tech4ED centres stands for “Technology for Education to gain Employment, and to empower Entrepreneurs towards Economic Development”. Tech4ED centers in rural and underserved areas aim to create more self-reliant communities through access to connectivity, communication, information, knowledge and vital government services. Tech4ED centres across the Philippines have benefited over 4,000 users belonging to sectors, such as out-of-school youth, senior citizens, entrepreneurs, overseas Filipino workers, disabled people, students and educators.

The Context The Philippines has a population of 101 million (2015 census) with an offline population of 63 million people (according to the World Bank’s 2016 World Development Report[1]). This ranks the Philippines 11th in the world in terms of the total number of offline people. More than 60 percent of land area has little or no internet access and it has also been reported to have the slowest internet speed in the region[2].

According to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) at the beginning of 2015, the poverty incidence amongst Filipinos was 26.3%[3].

The impact for people who lack basic digital skills within an increasingly digital literate society is on employability, engagement in community and society, and becoming increasingly excluded as more businesses and the government digitise their services.

The Platform - Learn My Way

The Learn My Way (www.learnmyway.com) online learning platform was developed by Good Things Foundation’s in-house team, and is the UK’s premier suite of entry-level learning content for people with little or no previous experience of the internet, with built-in automated online data capture and analysis. The curriculum offers free, simple, online and interactive learning content on a range of digital skills for the 21st Century; covering gateway skills (such as the use of keyboards and tablets) as well as practical digital transactions, such as the use of digital financial services, using online health services, as well as using email and social media.


The online modules are broken down into small pieces, and learners complete the individual training modules of interest to them. Learners who complete the training receive e-certificates, including subjects such as ‘Keeping in touch with family’, ‘Online Basics’, and ‘Online Safety’.

Over 40 online courses have been developed. The courses have been produced in collaboration with people who were recently digitally excluded, hyperlocal and national partners, and subject-matter experts, such as Yahoo (email), Vodafone (mobile devices), and Lloyds Banking Group (online banking). Learn My Way is mobile optimized for use on computers, tablets, and smartphones. A screen of Learn My Way is below:

In addition to the learner facing online courses, there is an online course for people working (paid or volunteer) in local community centres and libraries to train them on how to be digital mentors to support others to gain basic digital skills. Learn My Way is a dedicated learning platform, so once a person is registered on Learn My Way all of their data is automatically captured. This data capture approach was created to remove all requirement for data capture from hyperlocal and community partners who were sometimes unreliable and did not prioritise capturing and sharing learner details, learning undertaken, and skills completed. The data is available to Good Things Foundation in real time and is updated for all partners every 24 hours. The Learn My Way learning data and analysis is used to manage delivery across the UK’s hyperlocal network.


The pilot and the pilot objectives

The pilot ran from early November 2015 to end of March 2016. Good Things Foundation created a unique version of Learn My Way by taking out UK-specific courses and by creating a unique URL ph.learnmyway.com. The aim was to support 100 Philippine people to use the Philippines version of Learn My Way for the period of the pilot.

The people were supported and encouraged by two of the Philippines government’s Tech4ED centres. The pilot project was carried out through two Tech4Ed Centers: M’lang Tech4ED Center in M’lang, North Cotabato; and ALS Ana Kalang Tech4ED Center in Nagcarlan, Laguna.

The Philippines government trained staff in those centers on how to use Learn My Way and how to provide training and support for digital literacy.

Helping people to learn basic digital skills was at the center of the pilot. The main objective of the project was to explore the use and relevance of the Learn My Way online digital inclusion platform in a Philippine context.

The pilot was very successful with 165 people registering on Learn My Way over the five month pilot period. Almost 100 people (97) gave us feedback using our online pilot survey.

The demographics of the learners surveyed were slightly more female (56%) than male (44%); majority younger, with 63% aged 16 - 24 years however with 2% over 65 years; and the majority in employment and not looking for work (47%) with a significant number also in employment who are looking for work (37%).


Impact of Learn My Way

All learners stated that they had learned something new when using Learn My Way, specifically:

95% of learners learned how to use a computer

86% learned how to communicate with friends and family using the

internet

83% learned how to use the internet safely

77% learned how to complete online forms

76% learned how to create documents

75% learned how to search for information online

71% learned skills to help them get a job 95% of learners agree that Learn My Way is easy to use, and:

92% liked the quizzes

91% agreed Learn My Way uses friendly language

91% liked the practice examples in the course

89% of learners agreed that Learn My Way courses are useful

88% agreed Learn My Way is enjoyable to use

86% agreed Learn My Way is visually clear

85% agreed Learn My Way courses are the right length for them

English is one of the two official languages of the Philippines, and spoken and reading English is high amongst the population. The other official language is Filipino and the Philippines also has 187 other languages; many Filipinos commonly speak a language other than English as their primary language, therefore we wanted to establish if learning in English would be problematic. We found that 59% of learners said they understood all or most of the English used in Learn My Way. Only 8% told us they had little or no understanding. Note that the survey was in English and only 81% of the surveyed learners answered this question; we also didn’t ask any learners if they had any literacy issues in other first languages. When asked about progression and further learning, 64% of learners said that they’d like to improve their English.

Motivations for wanting to use the internet were varied, with personal interest (67%), work-related learning (67%), and keeping in touch with family (63%) all being significant motivators for the people surveyed.


12% of learners said that they found the audio difficult to understand. Through discussions with Tech4ED staff we also learned that whilst having an audio option was popular - for example hearing someone speak the words on the screen - people felt that an American accent would be easier to understand than the British accent that Learn My Way uses.


By Data: The top 12 Learn My Way courses by usage data 1. Creating documents2. Using the internet3. Using photos4. Using the internet safely5. Staying safe online6. Shopping online7. Banking online8. Using a keyboard9. Using a mouse10. Using Facebook11. Using a computer12. Using email

By Survey: The top courses that people said they used the most

1. Using a computer2. Creating documents3. Using the internet safely4. Using email5. Staying safe online6. Using Facebook7. Using a keyboard and equal 8. Using online searches9. Using online forms10. Using a mouse11. Using the internet12. Using a touchscreen

Through both the surveys and the data analysis it was apparent that the learners were keen to learn more about how they can apply the internet their lives, such as safety and creating documents, rather than using a mouse or touchscreen or email.

This pilot project has provided evidence that some generic online learning content produced for one country can be useful and positive for learners in another. When looking at which course was the most useful in the pilot for the demographic of learners in this pilot, the courses ‘Using the internet safely’ and ‘Creating documents’ were the most popular in both surveys and data.

When asked how Learn My Way could be improved, 68% of the learners would like more of a chance to practice what they have learned. Nearly two-thirds (64%) said they’d like the internet connection to be better at the centre where they used Learn My Way.


Next StepsThe Philippines pilot project (delivered in partnership with Good Things Foundation, The Philippines government, Tech4Ed, and ITU) added great value in understanding the digital literacy challenge in the Philippines. Shortly after the pilot, Learn My Way had a major update which took into account feedback from the pilot, such as lowering the internet speeds needed to run the software, and incorporating an automated text-to-speech voice so that it could be adapted to the learners preferred accent more easily and cheaply. As a first step for Good Things Foundation, a version of the newly upgraded Learn My Way will be created and made available to the Philippines Government and the Tech4ED centres to use as a replacement for the previous version that is still in use and has attracted over 300 learner registrations since the end of the pilot.

Although there are no future plans for the partners to extend the pilot in the Philippines, the lessons learned around the use of Learn My Way, as well as the role of an online curriculum focusing on 21st century skills, could add some insights for those creating digital literacy strategies for developing countries. Particularly lessons around the language used and internet speeds are particularly useful.

Based on Good Things Foundation’s (previously Tinder Foundation’s) experience in the UK, such strategies can also include Digital Champions, advocacy, promotion, network coordination, et al, and that conducting user surveys enables curriculum to be updated to better respond to users’ needs and local contexts.

Good Things Foundation will shortly begin a pilot project in Kenya, building on lessons from the pilot in the Philippines.

Our ambition is that digital literacy can bridge not only offline populations moving online, but also could seek to address social problems exacerbated by digital illiteracy.

We seek to work in partnership with organisations, big and small, and from all over the world, to improve people’s lives through a sustainable wave of lifelong learning and by helping people to gain vital skills for the 21st century.

Contact details:Helen Milner OBEChief ExecutiveGood Things [email protected]

[1] World Bank Development Report, Digital Dividends, 2016

[2] http://bayanihan.org/2015/09/22/dost-holds-asia-pacific-conference-on-digital-inclusion-in-cebu/

[3] Poverty Incidence among Filipinos

digital literacy in the philippines: a pilot project literacy in the philippines: a pilot project...

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