In this issue...
Welcome to Members' News 11 May, 2010
Our Face your online fears for Silver Surfers’ Day campaign has kicked off this week, and we’ve got a fantastic 700 centres signed up to take part and hold an event during May. We’ve also got a great game, Face your online fears, which I hope will let your learners overcome their worries about using computers and the internet. Even if you’re not running an event in May, I hope the game will be a great way for you to engage with your learners and you can try it out here,
We’ve got lots of exciting activity over the next couple of weeks to encourage people to visit their local UK online centre. We’re promoting the campaign in doctors’ surgeries throughout the country which we are hoping will be a great way to drive traffic to our centres, and we’ve also got lots of great media coverage coming over the next couple of weeks.
Best wishes
Helen Milner
Managing Director, UK online centres
Face your online fears game
We've now launched the great new engagement game for the Face your online fears for Silver Surfers’ Day campaign. Face your online fears will help guide new visitors to your centre through getting started with computers and the internet, and the reassuring character Sandy will be there to help every step of the way! Once learners have completed the game, they will have an understanding of basic keyboard and mouse skills, online security and online shopping. All learners who complete the game and the survey that follows will be added into the draw to win a laptop! Try it out today on myguide. We will update the product by Friday to include a skipping function so learners can move between tasks.
Event grants available
Grants are available for UK online centres that are not currently funded to deliver myguide registrations. If this applies to your organisation you can apply for a grant of up to £1150 to support myguide registrations throughout May for Face your online fears for Silver Surfers’ Day. You can apply for the grant easily online, and will receive an upfront “in-principle” agreement based on your target of myguide registrations. You can find out more about our events grants here.
Self-service password reset
If your learners forget their password on myguide, they will now be able to reset it themselves without having to ring our support line. Learners who get their password wrong will be prompted to reset it, and there is also a “Forgot my password” button on the log-in page.
Online basics Ning
We launched our Online basics Ning in February for pilot centres, and due to the popularity of the course we now want to open it up to all of our centres. On the Ning, you can respond to discussion topics and add your thoughts, as well as downloading new content from us. Join here, and start by telling us a bit about yourself and your organisation, as well as your experience of Online basics.
School of Everything
The School of Everything portal promotes informal adult learning by allowing learners to search for tutors and it now receives over 100,000 new visitors every month, and you can add your courses or venues to the search.
Self organised groups – those not funded directly by the public purse - are being invited to register and advertise any learning space they have, with UK online centres being especially needed.
Find out more about signing up, and about what consitutes a learning space, on our website.
UK IT industry awards
If you’re looking for recognition for your centre for the good work you do, then why not apply for a UK IT industry awards. For the first time, there is an award for Digital Inclusion Achievement of the year which is sponsored by Race online 2012. You can find out more about the awards and apply here.
Achieve funding success
Funding is increasingly difficult to obtain for many centres, and so to help you out UK online centres are running funding webinars specifically focused on writing better bids and increasing your chances of being successful.
74% of the people who attended the previous sessions said that the training had directly helped them improve the quality of their next funding application. The training is completely free and it will give you all the resources you'll need to be successful
The next Funding webinar dates are:
Wednesday 9th June 11:00 – 12:30
Wednesday 23rd June 11:00 – 12:30
To register please visit out Training webpage to secure your place
Your Questions...
...answered
Q.
How can I order more marketing materials for my centre?
A.
You can have a look at what marketing materials are available by visiting our website, and can order them by emailing ukonlinecentres@ufi.com with your Centre ID.
What else is happening?
Face your online fears - throughout May
Silver Surfers' Day - Friday 21 May
NIACE Adult Learners' Week - 15 - 21 May
Get online week - 18 - 24 October