Connected Society: Mobile Internet Skills Training Toolkit (MISTT)

This GSMA toolkit is for mobile network operators (MNOs), non-governmental organisations (NGOs), development organisations, and governments who want to provide training to improve people's basic knowledge and understanding of the mobile internet. The training presented in this toolkit is designed for people with little or no mobile internet skills. It aims to teach those who want to learn what the mobile internet is and how to communicate and search online. This toolkit is not suitable for people with no experience of using mobile phones, and it does not cover basic functions such as making calls or sending SMS (text messages). For this reason, this toolkit does not include information on how to download apps or open an email account.

According to GSMA, 10 years ago, only 16% of the world was online, and fewer than 1 in 10 people in developing countries was using the internet. In the past decade, many of those people have come online for the first time. Despite this, 57% of world's population remain offline, the majority of which are rural people in developing countries (ITU, 2015). Research conducted by the GSMA's Connected Society programme has consistently shown that low levels of mobile internet literacy is one of the most important reasons why many of these people remain offline. In order to address this barrier, the Connected Society programme developed this toolkit, which involved a user-centric design process carried out in collaboration with a number of partner organisations. This design process included a review of available literature, interviews with experts, and multiple rounds of focus group discussions, community visits, and a "train the trainer day" followed by a 2 day pilot training workshop with the intended audience in Maharashtra State, India.

One module has been designed as a series of "bitesize" training sessions of 2-3 minutes. It is for organisations who want to quickly and clearly demonstrate the basic functionality and benefits of using the mobile internet. There are 6 topics to choose from in this module: Introduction to the internet, WhatsApp, YouTube, Google, Safety and Cost. An in-depth training module is designed for organisations that have longer with their trainees. These training sessions of 45-60 minutes will help organisers run training sessions that instil the benefits of engaging with mobile internet services. There are 4 sessions within this module: Introduction to training, WhatsApp, YouTube and Google Search. Each of these sessions includes information on safety and cost, specific to that service.

Although it has been tailored for people in Maharashtra State, India, GSMA offers an accompanying 'How To Guide' as a companion piece to the main toolkit. This guide uses the findings gathered during the above-described process to provide a clear and easily adaptable framework for designing and delivering training on basic mobile internet skills in other parts of the world, enabling creation of a localised and customised toolkit.