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The Philippines boosts education sector’s digitalisation
MDEC launches #Sayadigital Movement
A Kiwi-developed digital, business and learning tech hub has been launched in New Zealand to bridge the digital divide and help combat poverty in the country. The tech hub was developed by a team that provides the locals in the area with training, employment, and business leadership. The team said that they had to step up and develop the tech hub to increase digital connectivity to mitigate high poverty in the area.
At the opening, Regional Economic Development Minister Stuart Nash said the hub was vitally important, especially with the digital advances during the COVID-19 lockdowns. He added that it is not about the future, it is about the present, and if we do not get this right in our communities, they will fall behind.
The Te Kona tech hub offers meeting rooms for hire, 10 hot desks, video conferencing facilities, event spaces, and reliable Wi-Fi which is in high demand in the region. It also provides digital literacy training, coding classes, and a mobile hub, which will take a mobile version of these services to more remote parts of the region. The developers will offer their training courses in the hub, as well as offering job-focused education modules.
The developers said that citizens in the area have not had access to strong connectivity for some time, so they needed to develop a space that would allow businesses to flourish and for students’ educational needs. The development of Te Kona has been supported by the government’s Provincial Development Unit, as well as other private institutions and foundations.
Furthermore, reports say that New Zealand may be at the bottom of the world when it comes to geographic locale, but Kiwis are quickly approaching the top when it comes to lean start-ups and tech. The report added that historically speaking when faced with a problem, or a need, New Zealanders prefer to find or create, a solution themselves. This combined with the fact that New Zealand is a great place to do business as some investors may say makes for an exciting time ahead for the New Zealand tech industry. New Zealand’s economic quality, business environment, governance, education, health, personal freedom, and environment all helped to place it first on the 149-country list on the Prosperity Index for 2016.
Accordingly, as reported by OpenGov Asia, the New Zealand government is taking steps to protect and encourage small businesses from a tech perspective. Small businesses will now benefit from a government-funded Digital Boost skills training and support initiative.
The Digital Boost skills training is the first initiative to be launched from the Digital Boost programme, a partnership between the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) and the private sector to support thousands of small businesses in realising the benefits of using digital tools and technologies in their business. The Small Business Digital Boost initiative will support more small business owners to realise the benefits of digitising their business. The programme aims to ensure small businesses acquire the right digital skills and online tools to help their business survive and thrive.
To deliver the training and support, MBIE is collaborating with a market partner who has extensive experience in helping business owners develop the capabilities needed to take advantage of the rapidly changing digital environment.
The Digital Boost programme is an excellent example of the public and private sectors working together for New Zealand small businesses. Industry Leaders, small business owners and MBIE have designed this programme to meet the needs of the country’s SMEs. This is more pertinent as New Zealand, and indeed, the world is looking to come out of the pandemic more resilient and future-focused. Adapting to a digital world that is increasingly going online, contactless, and remote will be key.
Following the successful efforts to establish Digital Maker Hubs in 24 schools in 2020, the Ministry of Education (MoE) and Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) have recently embarked on an initiative to scale this model to more schools around the country via public-private-partnerships.
Digital Maker Hubs are spaces to learn and practise digital creativity and innovation or spaces equipped with digital maker facilities and courses, where students can create and invent projects and learn new things using a variety of digital making tools and materials.
Recognising the importance of such spaces, MoE is looking to expand the reach and value of these hubs by partnering with industry players and other like-minded organizations to achieve their target of equipping 188 places with Digital Maker Hubs by end of this year. This includes an additional 9 schools nationwide presently.
The Director of BSTP stated that the MoE has seen promising results from the Digital Maker Hubs via MDEC’s early efforts, specifically in strengthening digital creativity and innovation amongst students. “We are keen to replicate this model in other schools and look forward to more industry players and government agencies coming on board to equip more schools and community places with such tools. MDEC’s initiatives such as this one, are aimed at creating a future-ready workforce, by equipping them with digital skills required to meet the demands of digital jobs,” he said.
The availability of such spaces is key to nurturing the younger generation for future jobs. The World Economic Forum in its 2020 Future of Jobs Report, estimates that 85 million jobs will be displaced by automation by the year 2025, yet 97 million new jobs will be created within the same time frame, largely in roles that require data and digital tech skills.
MDEC, mandated to lead the digital economy into the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) as the nation progresses towards Malaysia 5.0, first championed and implemented Digital Maker Hubs in 2018, under the #mydigitalmaker Movement. The said movement is a joint public-private-academia initiative to introduce and nurture digital competencies among Malaysian students. It falls under MDEC’s Digitally Skilled Malaysians, a key pillar under the agency’s strategic framework to accelerate the nation’s digital economy vision for the many.
The Head of Digital Skills and Jobs at MDEC stated that despite the pandemic posing challenges in education and talent development, MDEC remains committed to working with ecosystem partners to equip young learners to be future-ready.
Organisations that support the establishment of Digital Maker Hubs will be providing much-needed assistance to young talents, equipping them with critical skills needed to advance the digital economy. MDEC is creating possibilities and opportunities with limitless boundaries with technology, eventually bridging the digital divide.
Besides equipping 24 schools with Digital Maker Hubs, MDEC has also worked with various NGOs, state governments, universities and enterprises to establish 67 Digital Maker Hubs outside schools, totalling 90. A full list of all these Digital Maker Hubs can be obtained from the website.
MOE and MDEC would like to invite sponsors from corporates and industry players to support schools and community places that have been earmarked for the establishment of Digital Maker Hubs.
The Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay (IIT-Bombay) is offering a free online course on Java on the SWAYAM platform, which is open for anyone interested in learning the programming language. SWAYAM, which stands for Study Webs of Active-Learning for Young Aspiring Minds is a government-run open online course platform.
The spoken tutorial on Java has been funded by the National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology, under the Ministry of Human Resource Development. The course comprises 43 audio-video spoken tutorials by Professor Kannan Moudgalya, the Principal Investigator of Spoken Tutorial Project, IIT-Bombay.
“Calling out to the Java experts! Master the codes and concepts of this object-oriented, open-source, high-level programming language with the Java course by IIT Bombay on Swayam,” the official Twitter account of SWAYAM tweeted.
According to a news report, the course will be useful for high-school and college students. Software users, developers, working professionals, trainers, and research scholars. Anybody who stands to benefit from the technology.
Java is a technology that has various applications and is associated with benefits like strong memory allocation and an automatic garbage collection mechanism. It has powerful exception handling and type-checking mechanisms. A compiler checks the programme for any errors, and an interpreter checks any runtime errors, making the system secure from crashes.
The Java spoken tutorial available on the SWAYAM platform has been contributed jointly by TalentSprint, Hyderabad, and the Spoken Tutorial Team under IIT-Bombay. The spoken tutorial has been approved by the All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and can be covered in 15 weeks. Candidates who want to enrol in the course can register on the SWAYAM platform to access the spoken tutorial.
Last month, OpenGov Asia reported that IIT-Bombay announced it was establishing a Technocraft Centre for Applied Artificial Intelligence (TCA2I) to grow collaborations between the industry and academia in applied AI. It focuses on research across domains. It is looking at interdisciplinary research in the application of AI in supply chains, logistics, transportation, and cybersecurity, among others.
Apart from IIT-Bombay, several public educational institutes have launched programmes focusing on digital literacy. It is estimated that India will need nine times as many digital skilled workers by 2025. The average Indian worker will need to develop seven new digital skills to keep pace with tech advancements and demand. This amounts to a total of 3.9 billion digital skill trainings from 2020 to 2025.
Recently, IIT-Madras’ Robert Bosch Centre for Data Science and AI (RBCDSAI) launched a fellowship in Artificial Intelligence for Social Good. Early-career researchers or recent PhD graduates in computer science, computational and data sciences, biomedical sciences, management, finance, and other engineering branches can apply for the fellowship.
The fellowship is designed to enable outstanding candidates to establish their independent research profiles and contribute significantly to socially relevant AI research. As remuneration, the fellows will get a salary of IN15-18 lakhs (approximately US$20,000-24,000) per year, depending on the experience (equivalent to Assistant Professor’s starting salary at any IIT) for a non-renewable term of three years.
The National University of Singapore (NUS) will offer two new graduate programmes in digital financial technology (FinTech) in the new academic year, to help build a robust ecosystem of high-quality research talent and capabilities to support the fast-growing financial industry in Singapore.
The new Masters and PhD programmes are under the Asian Institute of Digital Finance (AIDF) at NUS, a university-level institute jointly founded by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the National Research Foundation Singapore (NRF) and NUS. The PhD programme, in particular, is Singapore’s first and only doctoral programme in FinTech.
In these uncertain times, more financial organisations than ever are leveraging FinTech to grow and improve their financial products, and to enable smooth and more innovative interaction with their customers.
The Director of Academic Programmes at AIDF, who is also from the NUS School of Computing (NUS Computing), stated that banks nowadays are becoming more efficient as more operational processes are being automated by AI, and decision making is assisted by sophisticated data analytics.
He noted that these advancements are rapidly reshaping the financial services sector. Concurrently, financial institutions are facing rapid market changes and intensified global competition. In-demand skill sets such as competencies in digital technologies and innovation, which the new Masters and PhD programmes are designed to impart, will give graduates a significant competitive advantage to thrive in the industry.
The Chief FinTech Officer of MAS and Co-Chair of AIDF Steering Committee stated that AIDF is designed to be Asia’s premium research and academic institute to advance deep technology research and develop next-generation leaders in digital finance and FinTech.
Its unique curriculum is structured to meet the industry’s technology skill requirements and integrated with a focus on financial inclusion, digital economy technology stack, and sustainability in high-growth markets. This key factor will foster high-quality talent development for an equitable and inclusive digital economy.
Meanwhile, the NRF Deputy Chief Executive Officer noted that digital talent is essential for Singapore to realise its ambition of being a trusted digital innovation hub.
As such, the RIE-funded AIDF provides a good platform for the post-graduates – both Masters of Science and PhD candidates – to be trained in FinTech to serve the growing needs of the financial industry. This in turn ensures a pipeline of local talent that will strengthen Singapore’s Smart Nation core.
Masters of Science in Digital Financial Technology
The 1.5-year Masters of Science in Digital Financial Technology is a collaborative programme by AIDF, NUS Computing and NUS Business School.
With an intake of 40 to 50 students, the Master’s Programme is designed primarily for those who plan to work in financial institutions or FinTech firms as AI software developers, data scientists, FinTech security specialists, or financial quantitative analysts.
The programme also offers elective modules that cover deep computing and finance expertise to help prepare graduates for future challenges in FinTech.
Students will undertake a two-semester long capstone project which is designed to help them pick up in-depth skills and knowledge in a focused area – such as artificial intelligence, machine learning or data analytics – via experiential learning. Students can choose either an academic research project or a FinTech internship to gain industry work experience that supports the acquisition of practical work skills and self-directed learning.
PhD in Digital Financial Technology
The PhD in Digital Financial Technology programme will be hosted jointly by the NUS Graduate School and AIDF. The programme will admit talented students with computing, finance, or STEM background, and it aims to train graduates who can excel with a strong technical foundation and independent research ability for driving financial innovations in academia as well as in FinTech industries.
As this is currently the only FinTech PhD programme in Singapore, graduates of this programme will be uniquely suited to work in the FinTech industry especially in fields where research projects require advanced quantitative techniques. Graduates may also become trainers in educational institutions to groom qualified FinTech manpower for Singapore and beyond.
In the unique design of the PhD programme, each student is guided by his/her own academic committee consisting of three faculty members from at least two different faculties. This academic committee will advise the student on coursework and research matters.
Students can take classes based on a personalised curriculum on the recommendations of his or her academic committee. They can take classes directly related to their research projects in areas such as AI or machine learning in finance, smart credit analytics, blockchain innovations, FinTech infrastructure, the economics of FinTech innovations or advanced time series forecasting.
The learning environment promises to be more fun and energetic with a new robot teaching assistant – a creation by Chula inventors rubber-stamped by the Gold Medal and the Innovation Excellence Award from the International British Innovation, Invention, Technology Exhibition (IBIX) 2020.
For kids, playing games and learning will no longer be two separate things. Following the recent launch of the teaching assistant robot “Avatar”, an innovative collaboration between Chula’s Faculties of Education and Engineering in the “TARAL: Teaching Assistant interactive Robot for Active Learning” research project.
“We developed the robot teaching assistant from a robot teddy bear, the first-generation robot that we submitted to a contest in South Korea. The highlight of the Avatar TA robot is the new feature that will transform the boring learning environment into fun lessons that learners will enjoy, including raising their Avatar robot with QR Codes received from answering quizzes. This process is called Gamification because it evokes a sense of enjoyment that learners may forget that they are studying”, said Prof. Dr Naowanit Songkram, Department of Educational Technology and Communications, who is a co-developer of the 10-inch, resin Avatar robot with Assoc. Prof. Dr Krerk Piromsopa of the Department of Computer Engineering, about the highlights and key features of the innovation.
The team applied the Learning Management System (LMS) in growing Avatar. The more learners answer quizzes, the more Avatar grows, “so learning and playing are pretty much the same thing,” the Professor said. Avatar is also equipped with Moodle open-source LMS which allows teachers to add and modify as needed all forms of contents and teaching materials in Avatars, be it animations, electronic books, or URL links. It was noted that the quizzes may include fill-in-the-blank, or full-sentence answers types. The evaluation and summary of the results are also done in real-time.
Prof. Dr Naowanit concluded that Avatar is currently under petty patent application and that an extension of the project to Chulalongkorn Demonstration School to develop exercise aids for students’ fitness test in P.E. is currently underway as well.
AI in education
A recent article noted that AI is slowly making its way into education, although robots in the classroom are yet to become a staple. Specific tasks can be rendered easier with artificial intelligence. Soon, it is expected that AI will be used to make grading relatively fast and simple on computer equipment. This will significantly improve the quality of education by helping students be as successful as possible.
Teachers and learners are already benefitting from machine-learning capabilities, improving access to information, and enhancing learning.
Some examples include:
- Personalized Learning: By offering personalized recommendations to each student, teachers can perform much better than before. With AI, students receive personal assistance with their in-class assignments as well as their final exams. It’s essential to give students immediate feedback through artificial intelligence apps since they’re targeted and customized. Lessons can be condensed into intelligent flashcards or study guides. Students can also be taught based on the challenges they face in learning class materials.
- Easy to Understand Materials: AI is being developed to make complex texts more understandable to students with varying levels of learning abilities. Students with learning disabilities should find it easier to relate and engage with the material if they simplify it or replace famous quips with simple alternatives.
- Educators Access to More Data: AI has enabled educators to have more access than ever before to a variety of data that can provide them with valuable insights into a student’s characteristics.
- Globalized Learning: Through AI-powered education, students learn the fundamentals of computer literacy. With the advent of more technological advances, there’ll be a broader range of courses available online.
- Identification of Learning Disabilities: Learning to identify learning disabilities in students is the first step in providing effective learning for them. Not all current testing is highly effective in detecting dyslexia, dyscalculia, and other learning disabilities. Some teachers are being trained on new AI systems to administer more effective tests to discover some of these conditions. A learning disability can be identified and the resources available can be used for the student.
- Simplified Administrative Tasks: With technology, grading can be automated in instances where multiple tests are being administered. So, professors wouldn’t be spending as much time grading them as they would be with their students. AI is expected to do this soon.
- Uses AI for Student’s Reliable Feedback: As AI gets increasingly advanced, this makes it possible to give students direct feedback on their performance. The system allows students to work at their own pace as needed to master the material and it won’t move on until students demonstrate mastery.
- New Innovations: AI can help in creating data-driven forecasts allowing operations departments to analyse complex data. Hence, they can adequately plan for the future, assign seats during school functions, or order food from local cafeterias. School districts can drastically reduce waste by eliminating over-ordering, thus saving money.
An EdTech start-up based in Indonesia launched an app that helps students throughout the country to enter college using a digital platform. The developers said that the digital programme is part of their vision to ensure that 100 thousand Indonesian children can study using the app.
The developers said that the app strives to facilitate access to higher education for Indonesian children through cooperation with more than 400 campuses at home and abroad. During a pandemic like COVID-19, this provides easy access for high school students who want to find options for various local private universities (PTS) and universities abroad using one application on their smartphone.
The application’s Instant Approval feature allows high school students who wish to enrol in college to get confirmation of college admission in just one hour after registering and uploading their report cards to the application. This Instant Approval system is a concrete digital transformation for the fastest and cheapest college registration in Indonesia, where students will no longer need to fill out many forms to register with various universities, said the developers.
The developers added that all updates for students from the university are immediately updated on the mobile application. Whether waiting list, rejected, accepted, taking additional tests, all can easily be found from a checklist in the application. The app also aims to help students sustainably get digital lecture services, starting from registering many universities in one process, getting scholarships, taking care of campus activities, to getting internships and work after graduating from college.
The programme also has an incentive feature when someone invites high school students to register for lectures using the app. When the student uploads their report card to the application, the person who invited them will get IDR50,000 for each user.
The tech start-up strongly believes that features in this mobile application will greatly help students in Indonesia to be able to pursue higher education by taking advantage of technological advances. Now, more than 140,000 students are using the app for various student needs. More than 4,000 students have enrolled in lectures using the Instant Approval feature.
By embracing technology solutions, educational institutions can also support government programmes to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission, because all processes, both from the student and university side, can be done digitally without physical contact, added the developers.
Accordingly, reports from the World Bank says that while Indonesia has made significant progress on increasing access to education over the past few decades, learning outcomes remain low. In addition to key reforms in the public education system in terms of increased quality of spending, the use of information, communications, and technology for education (EdTech) provision holds considerable promise in improving educational outcomes. This is particularly the case in Indonesia, where the Minister of Education has indicated a strong interest in leveraging technology for learning.
The COVID-19 crisis has forced a very fast and broad increase in the use of EdTech, which is expected to have lasting effects on the market. Indonesian EdTech products generally aim at helping students with learning and upskilling, helping educators with student management, communication, and teaching, and helping educational institutions with administration.
There is no clear roadmap in the publicly released drafts for integrating EdTech into Indonesia’s education system. However, other countries with more developed EdTech ecosystems have a clear vision and strategy for integrating EdTech, which can make the often-private sector-led expansion more equitable. While the changing world of work and education may be challenging for middle-income countries such as Indonesia to navigate, the next industrial revolution is already underway, and Indonesia needs a clear, detailed, and implementable plan to help the country get potential gains from utilising these tech advancements.
The Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) announced the MyDigitalWorkForce Work In Tech (MYWiT) initiative, a training and hiring incentive programme aimed at boosting the digital business services sector as well as developing quality tech talents in Malaysia. This initiative is an extension of the #MyDigitalWorkforce Movement that MDEC launched last year to help reskill and up-skill Malaysians for digital economy jobs.
The objective of the initiative is to upskill and subsidize talents and businesses with RM100 million in training and salary incentives. More than 300 companies within these sectors are expected to gain from this program while an estimated 6,000 job opportunities will be created to produce at least 1,000 quality tech talents. This is in line with the government’s Malaysia
Digital Economy Blueprint (MyDIGITAL) which target to create 500,000 jobs for Malaysians by 2025.
MyWiT is made up of the following components; the Digital Business Services (DBS) and Digital Tech Apprenticeship (DTA) initiatives. DBS is aimed at incentivising companies who are hiring fresh graduates or unemployed Malaysians for digital business services roles within their organisation and offers a minimum incentive between RM9,800 and RM20,600 per employee.
For each employee, this incentive will be divided into two parts – the salary incentive, which will cover 40% of the employee’s monthly wage for six months (minimum salary of RM 2,000) and an RM5,000 training incentive. The training courses eligible for this include in-house training with a minimum of 40 hours or “Work and Learn” courses listed on MDEC’s Digital Skills Training Directory. There are 180 courses listed to date on the website.
Meanwhile, the DTA is targeted at companies that are hiring unemployed Malaysians for high demand tech jobs in areas such as Data Science, Software Development and Cybersecurity, offering a total incentive package of RM15,200 per employee. This constitutes a salary incentive of RM 1,200 per month for six months and a training incentive worth RM8,000 per employee.
Employers will be expected to pay a minimum salary of RM 3,000 from the fourth month onwards. Employers may select training courses from the “Career Upgrade” courses listed on MDEC’s Digital Skills Training Directory. All courses in the Digital Skills Training Directory have been reviewed and endorsed by industry practitioners.
The CEO of MDEC stated that MDEC closely monitors the skills demanded of talent today. Their recent analysis among various job search sites shows an increasing demand for digital jobs. A total of 47,000 tech-related jobs were advertised in all five portals up to February 2021.
MDEC targets to incentivise tech companies prepared to hire, upskill and adequately compensate the Malaysian workforce, directly averting and eradicating the impact that COVID-19 is exerting on unemployment. At the most fundamental level, the programme accelerates Malaysia’s journey towards being a digital society through creating digital opportunities for the people, businesses and the economy as a whole, in line with MyDIGITAL, she said.
To qualify for both the DBS and DTA incentives, the company must be incorporated in Malaysia and is committed to offering employment for a minimum of 12 months. The maximum hiring quota is set at 500 people for DBS and 50 for DTA.
On the other hand, individuals seeking to benefit from MyWiT must be Malaysian citizens and must not be a current or past beneficiary of any of MDEC’s MyWiT incentives or part of PenjanaKerjaya 2.0 and Penjana KPT-CAP programmes. DBS is open to fresh graduates, unemployed and retrenched individuals while the DTA is open to the unemployed and retrenched employees.
MDEC’s initiatives under the pillar of Digital Jobs and Skills have impacted more than two million Malaysians from 2016 to Q3 2020. To date, the agency has reached out to support the workforce in accessing skilling and income opportunities through programmes and initiatives which include the Digital Skills Training Directory, Global Online Workforce (GLOW) as well as Go-eCommerce.
The Minister of Communications and Multimedia stated that the Government is cognisant of the challenges brought about by the pandemic and the announcement is a testament of its continued effort to not only sustain the tech industry but also serves as a boost to increase Malaysia’s capabilities and capacities, to enable the digital business industry to survive and thrive. “Together with MDEC, we will continue to drive the digital economy forward and accelerate towards achieving the goals as set forth in MyDIGITAL in ensuring a shared prosperity for all,” he said.
The Chairman of MDEC stated that in a landscape transformed by the pandemic, embracing digitalisation and 4IR technologies is vital for businesses and the Malaysian workforce. Through this initiative, MDEC will pursue its mandate in ensuring that we bring innovation and advancement in the workplace and businesses in support of the MyDIGITAL promise. Skilling Malaysians digitally as facilitated by employer-incentivised programmes like MYWiT, counters unemployment, progressing the nation along the Malaysia 5.0 journey, he added.
A digital health literacy initiative funded by the Australian Digital Health Agency last year is reaping significant rewards and helping bridge the digital divide that precludes many Australians from accessing improved health services.
Last year, 71 community organisations across Australia were selected by the Good Things Foundation to teach digital health literacy skills through the Health My Way program and improve digital inclusion.
The Foundation is a social change charity that supports people to improve their lives through the use of technology and builds understanding and skills to allow Australians to realise the benefits of the evolving digital health system.
The Foundation trained and resourced 232 digital health mentors from the funded community organisations to deliver the project. Eighty per cent of participants in the pilot said their digital health literacy skills and confidence had increased.
During the project, at least 3,000 people have been directly supported by the mentors to improve their skills. Another 3,000 have been reached through community events and the provision of resources on accessing reliable information online about COVID-19.
The CEO of the Australian Digital Health Agency stated that by supporting the Good Things Foundation and its national network of community organisations, the Agency was benefitting from their local relationships and existing roles supporting communities.
The Foundation has a network of 3,500 community organisations providing digital skills and online tools to support their communities. The organisations selected to receive funding included those supporting seniors, culturally and linguistically diverse people and people with disabilities.
Staff and volunteers of the selected community organisations attended the Foundation’s train-the-trainer sessions so they could teach people in their local area how to understand and use digital health literacy tools such as My Health Record or fitness and wellbeing apps and find reliable health information online.
One organisation participating in the program is the Burdekin Community Association in Queensland. They have been running the digital health literacy program throughout the pandemic.
Their Service Coordinator said, “We kept the centre open under COVID-safe conditions and were able to continue to provide advice both in person and over the phone when our community needed it most. This program is very beneficial and easy for learners to follow. It can be paced to suit each individual’s needs and offers a tailored approach to improve their digital skills.”
The National Director of the Foundation noted that the organisation welcomed the opportunity to work with the Australian Digital Health Agency to promote digital health literacy skills in Australia.
“Digital skills are essential for all Australians so they can benefit from the range of online tools available to improve their health and wellbeing,” she said. “Our network of organisations has supported people to learn these valuable skills in their community for free.”
“Together with our work with the Australian Library and Information Association who help people access their My Health Records, we are supporting Australians to make the most of the fantastic health tech innovations in this country – to help them lead happier, healthier lives.”
The Foundation had developed and released brand new online learning modules to support the work undertaken in the community to improve digital health literacy. Released for the first time late last year, these can be accessed by anyone, anytime.
When it comes to improving the health of all Australians, the role of digital innovation and connection is a vital part of a modern, accessible healthcare system. Against the backdrop of COVID-19, digital health has seen exponential growth in relevance and importance, making it more pertinent than ever for all Australians and healthcare providers.
