This page includes sections for: Spanish Language Instruction, Cyber-security focus, Home Broadband Tips, Targeted toward Seniors, Tools to Help with Training, Miscellaneous Topics, and General Training Sites. If you have additional material to suggest, please contact us. For additional material, see our Digital Inclusion Resources for Specific Groups page.

The People’s Resource Center Course Material  housed here is no longer being updated, but is maintained here for historical use. These are instructor-led course material on a variety of computer topics including Introduction to Computers, Window Fundamentals, Excel, Word, and Powerpoint.

Spanish Language Instruction

Biblioteca Centro para Puerto Rico – Fundación Sila M. Calderón has put together a list of Spanish Resources for Digital Inclusion Training Classes

Also, search this page (control-F) for “Spanish”

Cyber-security focus

1. Oasis Security Awareness Training, including  a video explaining multi-factor authentication
2. “I, Obscura,” a dark pattern zine launched from Stanford and UCLA, The zine features manipulative patterns that companies use to trick unsuspecting users into doing what they want
3. AARP Fraud Watch Network, which includes resources for fraud prevention and support
4. From the Front Porch Center for Innovation and Wellbeing, the Piers Project provides an internet safety toolkit, including English language toolkit and presentation, Spanish language toolkit and presentation, Korean language toolkit and presentation, Simplified Chinese language toolkit and presentation, and traditional Chinese language toolkit and presentation
5. Common Sense Media is a San Francisco-based non-profit organization that provides education and advocacy to families to promote safe technology and media for children. It includes a section highlighting concerns for parents.
6. The News Literacy Project offers a set of resources teaching about how and when to trust sources on the Internet
7. Cybersecurity for pre-k to Third grade
8. Common Sense: Digital Citizenship training material for four grade ranges: K-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12
9. Be Internet Awesome– a training program from Google for children and cybersecurity
10. Loaves, Fishes, and Computer’s Internet Safety Guide
11. Human-I-T’s Spanish-language recorded Online Safety session
12. Denver Public Library’s training material for Digital Privacy and Security  and Digital Privacy for Reproductive Healthcare
13. AHIMA (American Health Information Management Association) Foundation’s:
    • consumer tips on protecting the privacy and security of health information
    • Health Data and HIPAA Better Health is in Your Hands campaign
    • a blog post on “Health Data Confidentiality Requires Health Information Literacy”

Home Broadband Tips

1. Guide to improve internet speed available from Broadband Savvy Can also read their explanation of broadband.
2. Support materials for families to get older loved ones online – https://www.gol4apple.org/family/indexfamily.html

Targeted toward seniors

These resources are specifically focused on digital skills for seniors:

1. TechBoomers – free courses introducing a variety of popular web-sites and internet basics including a course on how to use TechBoomers. In addition to the resources on their website, they have a growing set of content on their YouTube channel, as well as a Hindi-language YouTube channel.
2. Cyber-Seniors– membership is free to seniors and provides access to the Senior Resource and Training Center, as well as Awards and Contests. Young People can register for free to take the online Cyber-Seniors Mentor Training Program and then volunteer to help a senior connect with loved ones and essential online services.
3. Generations On Line – tutorials for seniors
4. Oasis Mobile Accessibility Guide to make phones easier to use.
5. Internet basics for seniors article from Allconnect.
6. Sixty and Me Computer Skills Courses for Seniors
7. Senior Planet offers live, synchronous classes for community members 60+

Tools to help with training

A few  good resources for people involved in computer skills training include:

1. NDIA blog on planning to build a digital skills curriculum The page includes free  lessons and tutorials on digital skills topics available through a variety of different programs.
2. Digital Equity Framework  – A multi-sheet google document that defines sets of digital skills and levels to show progression in the areas of: digital skills for daily life, connectivity/infrastructure, equipment, digital skills for education, training and work. Note, there are multiple sheets within the document, including an integrated view and views focused on the individual and system perspectives.
3. Northstar Digital Literacy Assessment – a website providing computer skill assessment tests and can allow partner organizations to provide certificates to end users.
4. Peer 2 Peer University provides a framework for peer to peer learning using on-line courses. There is a wealth of information to help plan for and run a peer to peer class. It also includes tools for developing on-line courses and to help with the mechanics of enrollment for a class.
5. Gail’s Toolkit, a structure for technology classes developed by Gail Borden Public Library, now owned by digitallearn.org, with templates for instructor guides, activity sheet, handouts, plus presentation and additional material.
6. DITTO is a cloud-based data collection program created to help community organizations collect participant demographics, class information, enrollment tracking, staff management, participant attendance, training hours, and completion status at a cost of $300-400 per year.
7. Alfredo Calderon offer a crowd-sourced bulletin board of material related to teaching & learning on-line
8. Digital Literacy Pathway provides guidance for instructors on how to evaluate and engage with digital literacy skills resources and programming
9. Digital Resilience in the American Workforce (DRAW) an overview of how adult education or digital inclusion programs can teach digital skills
10. From the Digital Resilience in the American Workforce project, here is a set of findings and discussion on profession development, as well as  a set of professional development resources for those involved in digital inclusion training:
    1. OCTAE’s Teaching Skills That Matter (TSTM) initiative
    2. OCTAE’s Integrating Digital Literacy Into English Language
    3. Center on Inclusive Technology & Education Systems’  evidence-based field guide
    4. ISTE’s SkillRise’s Upskill With Edtech
    5. The Promoting Digital Literacy for Adult Learners: A Resource Guide
    6. World Education’s Transforming Distance Education
    7. World Education’s Innovating Distance Education in Adult Learning (IDEAL)

Miscellaneous Topics

1. Excel Easy, a rich set of instruction pages on Excel, from basic to advanced topics with 300 examples. Or check out this list of The World’s Best Excel Courses in 2020 from CourseDuck.
2. For financial literacy, the FDIC provides instructor-led curriculum at Money Smart for Adults and Money Smart for Young People.
3. Welcoming Computer Beginners to an All-virtual World

Links to other general training sites:

1. Digital Inclusion Resource Library – a collection of documents, reports, teaching aids and other assets used by digital inclusion practitioners. The platform can point to interactive content as well. Can sign up to participate here.
2. Digital Resilience in the American Workforce (DRAW) list of digital skills curricula
3. Peer to Peer University has put together a handbook for virtual learning circles to help with running virtual community-based education programs
4. Chicago’s Digital Learn – Short video lessons (in English and Spanish) on a variety of topics. Registration required, but open to everyone.
5. Digital Learn– Tools and Resources for Trainers
6. Wisc On-line Basic Computer Skills MOOC – includes assessments and nine modules with introductory skills
7. Web Literacy from Mozilla provides  lesson plans, including offline activities and online instruction
8. Texas Libraries Digital Training – Job-skill based training, available in English, Spanish, and Vietnamese
9. Skills Commons – Department of Labor’s free and open online library, containing free and open learning materials and program support materials for job-driven workforce development which can be downloaded. This collection of workforce-related Open Educational Resources (OER) created by over 700 community colleges across the nation can be freely reused with the attribution. Example searches of “digital skills” yield items like this Basic Computer Skills course which includes course overview, units, and tests.
10. CourseDuck – programming courses and tutorials with ratings based on user reviews and includes course duration and difficulty
11. Connected Nation’s Drive Your Learning (self-paced on-line courses in computer and life skills- requires registration)
12. Denver Public Library has posted the course material from their technology classes, including a subset of Computer introduction classes in Spanish
13. New York Public Library tech guide handouts, some of which are available in non-English languages, including Spanish, French, Chinese and Russian.
14. GCF LearnFree (on-line self paced courses on computer, education, life skills). See also the GCF Learnfree South American websites: GCFAprendeLibre.org for Spanish, and https://edu.gcfglobal.org/pt/ for Portugese.
15. TechBoomers (a set of material introducing a variety of popular web-sites)
16. Tech Goes Home has a set of material (in English and Spanish) for:
    • School and Community, which includes general resources and resources for Boston, Somerville, and Cambridge MA
    • Small Business 
    • Early Childhood
    • Webinar Training for Workforce Development
17. Northstar has assembled a collection of publicly available learning resources
18. Khan Academy is a nonprofit with the mission to provide a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere. Course material is general education tutorials, from introductory to advanced in a wide range of subjects, as well as life skills.
19. Microsoft Digital Literacy Curriculum – A set of 2-3 hour courses in over ten languages introducing topics in computer literacy and Microsoft product training.
20. New Mexico digital literacy resources include training toolkit, and training materials supporting their curriculum
21. A set of technology classes from Gail Borden Public Library, which uses the “Gail’s Toolkit” framework. https://training.digitallearn.org/courses.
22. AT&T Connected Learning has a collection of introductory training courses
23. Applied digital skills from Google has resources for teachers, students, and parents to obtain and apply practical digital skills
24. Grow with Google brings Google resources to organizations and provides career-focused certifications
25. NDIA training suggestions – links to a wide variety of classes, some of which require subscriptions which may be available through local public libraries or state library systems (noted as such). List was assembled in 2016, links verified in 2021