Rural Women Online: developing digital skills for women in regional, rural and remote Victoria

Rural Women Online offers a comprehensive suite of practical resources aimed at enhancing digital literacy. These accessible, free, and high-quality resources provide detailed instructions, how-to-guides, and tips for online safety, which all serve to foster greater confidence and improve digital safety.

Many women in Victoria face digital exclusion, and a growing gap in the digital divide disadvantages women who live in regional, rural and remote Victoria. Boosting technology skills and confidence can help women participate more fully in their communities and in digital society.

Launched by Victorian Women’s Trust in May 2022, Rural Women Online is designed to facilitate women’s digital connectivity by providing access to IT training, support, and mentoring. Helen Macpherson Smith Trust granted $400,000 in 2023 to expand the Rural Women Online program across rural Victoria, building on prior support of $165,000 in 2021 for initial development. The partnership aims to reduce the gap in digital capability for women in regional communities.

The platform offers a comprehensive suite of practical resources aimed at enhancing digital literacy. These accessible, free, and high-quality resources provide detailed instructions, how-to-guides, and tips for online safety, which all serve to foster greater confidence.

In development of the platform, Rural Women Online identified the need for in-person digital skills intensives that emphasise community connection. In response, intensive multi-day digital workshops were delivered with communities in Shepparton and Yackandandah.

For many rural women, opportunities to develop digital skills beyond formal work or study settings are limited. RWO addressed this gap through a locally driven, supportive model that fostered both learning and social connection. Its tailored approach is what made it effective, and why its impact has the potential to extend beyond the communities directly involved. Dr Kieran Hegarty, Research Fellow, ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated-Decision Making and Society

The intensives offered hands-on digital skills workshops, one-on-one support, keynotes from leading thinkers and contact with local service providers. A non-judgemental learning environment encouraged participation from everyone.

These free public events were tailored to suit the context of each local community, being developed in consultation with community representatives. This place-based approach ensured that the program was relevant to each community’s distinctive digital inclusion challenges. The events brought community members and service providers together, creating a strong sense of community ownership of the issue of digital equity, and awareness of what this means in practice.

Volunteers were vital to the program and supported community members with hands on learning. Volunteer Mandy Girvan saw first-hand how confidence grew as women returned on later days with their devices for one-on-one support. “You don’t know what you don’t know, and that makes asking for help hard,” Mandy said. “Making people feel comfortable opened the door to learning. Seeing women return with their devices showed real confidence building. Volunteering in Yackandandah even inspired me to move nearby—it changed my life”.

Researchers from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated-Decision Making and Society at RMIT University emphasise the importance of improving digital inclusion for women in rural and regional areas.

“RWO responded to local voices by designing a program that reflects the unique needs of each community. This place-based approach enabled tailored digital inclusion initiatives and helped lower barriers to participation,” explained Associate Professor Jenny Kennedy, Associate Investigator of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated-Decision Making and Society. “Extending this model to other regional areas could deliver significant benefits and foster broader digital confidence”.

Rural Women Online demonstrated that engaging local facilitators and resources, and collaborating with local organisations, is key to successful digital inclusion in communities. Such a community development approach means that once the intensive moves away from the community, the rippling and multiplier effects remain.

Learning and safety resources

The impact of RWO continues to extend through the online platform with the provision of free written resources and learning videos. These learning guides include information on how to bank online, set up a MyGov account and use social media.

Rural Women Online resources are shared with permission of Victorian Women’s Trust. Click on the links below to download the how-to-guides to help you navigate the ever-changing digital world.

 

A key concern for many participants of the intensives, particularly older women, was online safety and privacy. Keep Safe Online resources provide key information on how to protect yourself and your family from the dangerous side of technology. The two videos below provide easy-to-follow tips on how to utilise password managers and stay safe against malware.

Password Manager Guide

Malware Protection Guide

Visit Rural Women Online for further information and access to additional resources and instructional videos.