Presented by Nikki Spencer, Digital Projects Manager for Digital Birmingham, to an audience of researchers, academics and City Council figures as part of the Birmingham City Council Celebrating Research event on 16 October 2014.
Uncommon Grace The Autobiography of Isaac Folorunso
An outline of the EU DISCOVER Skills for Carers Project
1. Digital Inclusion Skills for Carers bringing
Opportunities, Value and
Excellence
Nikki Spencer
Digital Birmingham
2. DISCOVER – Skills for Carers
Pan-European project, offering information, advice, guidance and
training to support the wellbeing of carers in their caring role.
Fostering a shared learning environment for communities of
carers; to share experiences, knowledge, challenges and questions.
Using everyday technologies like the internet, mobile phones and
other digital devices to reach carers in the comfort of their own
home as well as through the use of community locations.
Raising awareness of the benefits of acquiring digital based skills
for carers as well as sharing this with those they care for, all of
which will be done in a mutually supportive way.
3. Why DISCOVER?
Impacts on:
public services,
families
health care providers
wellbeing of carers
4. Project Implementation
Pilot SitePilot Site
Pilot SitePilot Site
Pilot SitePilot Site
Pilot SitePilot Site
Partners: Greece (1), Spain (2), Holland (1), UK (3), and Ireland (1).
5. What DISCOVER will do…
Create an online portal
Links to information,
advice and guidance
Provides login to
eLearning environment
Create bespoke eLearning
content based on carers
needs and market analysis
Targets informal carers (75%)
and formal carers (25%)
Take into consideration
Technology used by
carers to access Discover
learning experiences
Nature of carers
Pedagogy
Recognition and
certification
Subject focus
7. Uses elements:
Moodle for eLearning
Virtual Case Creator for
Scenario based learning
Virtual Patient for
professional learning
Mahara learning portfolio
adds social networking and
transferable learning
achievements
Looking Local digital TV in
UK
11. First results from focus groups
Time poor, stress, feelings of isolation
Wide range of digital skills
Interest in telehealth/care, assisted
living when explained
Loosing out, desire to get (back) into
job (UK yes – vs Netherlands no)
Getting through the day – what helps
Information about health conditions
Learning how to find answers
12. Translation into Learning Content
Overarching topic: How can technology help you
communicate and care better
Creation of ‘learning pathways’
a) improving the day to day life
b) preparing for the future
Teaching generic skills – e.g. how to find out about ‘dementia’
- not providing content about dementia
Use appealing menu choices / labels e.g. :
I want to talk to others (instead of communication skills)
Give me a break: How to find local help (instead of
information for carer relief)
Basic digital skills – refer to existing content
16. Adapting to feedback – Carers
needs
Available with low bandwidth
Display on any screen (mobile
to pc)
Apply an icon driven
navigation design
Choice of topics
Bitesize learning
Flexible user guided learning
3.
Developi
ng for
scalability
& reuse
Student Menu Guide with Falls
Scenario
17. Scalability and Reuse
Adoption of an open source
VLE Moodle
Design supports
modularisation and
customisation
Usable across different
technologies (digital TV,
gaming, smart phone)
Enables easy translation
and localisation
Working across different
country infrastructures
3.
Developi
ng for
scalability
& reuse
18. Stakeholder engagement
for potential collaboration
Early adopters
European stakeholders through
Project Advisory Board (Sweden,
Italy)
National stakeholders to use the
service for free
European workshops
Study visit (Sweden)
5. Early
stakeholder
engagement
(cooperation)
Carers and Care Support Staff at
Midland Mencap
19. Target outcomes…
1. Strengthen the use of ICT solutions in the delivery of care
and social support: -
Higher importance placed on digital skills of carers
Improved health and care service efficiency
Effective DISCOVER platform
20. Target outcomes…
2. Increase digital competencies and engagement of carers and
those they care for: -
Improved digital and digital inclusion skills for carers
Increased digital competencies and engagement of older
people
Improved quality of life of carers through informational
access, learning and support
Contribute to structure of social inclusion professions and
market
Improved employability of formal and informal carers
Supportive network of communities
21. Target outcomes…
3. Raise the profile of social inclusion work: -
Stakeholders better educated on the value of the solution
in social inclusion and economic terms
Communities of interest established
Effective communications
22. Help us to shine a spotlight on…
www.discover4carers.eu
E: info@discover4carers.eu
THANK YOU
discover4carers
Editor's Notes
Project Facts:
Funded under: The Information and Communication Technologies Policy Support Programme - Area: CIP-ICT-PSP.2011.3.2 - Digital competences and social inclusion
The total cost of the project is budgetted at €3.60m with an EU contribution: €1.80m, over three years from 01/04/2012 to 31/03/2015
Currently, over a 100 million people in Europe care for a family member, partner, relative or friend and this figure will rise sharply with ongoing population ageing. The increase in demand for care will have implications for public services, families and health care providers, with families increasingly expected to take on more complex care tasks and healthcare professionals experiencing increased workloads.
Evidence of longstanding physical and emotional health problems in carers is well developed. High blood pressure, tiredness, lack of energy, back problems, anxiety and depression, have all been linked to carer stress. Informal carers in particular can experience feelings of isolation because they do not have the supports that paid care workers have, for example, care workers within a nursing home setting have access to a range of supports.
List of partners and their roles in the DISCOVER project
A strong consortium of partners from five countries United Kingdom, Greece, Holland, Spain and Ireland
Within the lifetime of the project we aim to have:
400 carers trained across four countries; United Kingdom, Holland, Spain and Greece, some carers become digital skills mentors for the older people they care for reaching approximately 200 older people.
1 -5 training organisations per country engaged
5-10 care organisations (third sector, commercial or municipal) per country engaged
Using Living Lab methodology for consistent user-driven and iterative design
The DISCOVER project will create a new service to deliver skills training for carers and has three primary objectives:
Strengthening the use of information and communications technology solutions in the delivery of care and social support.
Increasing digital competencies and engagement of carers and those they care for.
Raising the profile of social inclusion work.
The creation of a single entry point will provide eLearning services in a multi-lingual format at Local, National, EU levels for formal and informal carers.
Additional tools and materials will be developed through a user driven approach within the first 13 months
DISCOVER’s partners are at the forefront of eLearning training providers and social care.
To ensure channels for communication, collaboration & support are easily accessible and available to carers.
All online learning will be ‘light’ so it can be consumed with low bandwidth on any device
UK c. 40 carers in several groups and desk research
Ireland experience from CASALA centre
Netherlands experience from ASTRA and Vaya communities
I want to talk to others – how to share knowledge with others and gain knowledge from others
Give me a break: Access support to lessen your load, find local help
User and stakeholder input early on
Achieving take up by still making it available for low bandwidth
Widely usable
System robust, can be used by thousands and can be used by other developers
Scalability
– more end users (individuals or organisations) / more languages/countries using it
- Different technologies
Reuse: more installations through source code that can be given to and implemented by others
Moodle – open source addresses ability to re-use, guarantees that any developer can work with it, can benefit from generic Moodle developments
Icon driven navigation and design responds directly to user needs, hopefully creating wide market appeal. It also supports reuse across different countries (icon rather than text)
The issue of modularisation and customisation refers to the segmentation of the learning zone into four key areas. These areas in turn are also divided into “mini –areas” based on topics and/or skills levels. This should make it easier to replicate and customise each area. If for example new topics need to be added or different learning activities included we can do these easily without having to impact on everything in the zone. If some stakeholders only wanted to use certain areas of the zone then these can easily be copied and re-purposed without decontextualizing the learning. Compare to a traditional HE course in MOODLE where everything is laid out in a linear form and one activity often leads onto another. Making bespoke changes or segmenting out components of such a course is more difficult to achieve.
Project has started activities from day 1.
Care providers and training providers influenced to place higher importance on digital skills of carers and acknowledge that training needs to be provided or existing training needs to be updated.
Stakeholders better educated on the value of the solution in social inclusion and economic terms
DISCOVER Website and social media outlets will become the main marketing and communication tool.