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Ivy Tech and Indiana University Expand Digital Literacy Training for Business

Posted on by Vaseline

Steven Bryant
| Specially for The Herald-Times

Last year, Ivy Tech Bloomington’s Gayle and Bill Cook Center for Entrepreneurship and Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business began assessing digital literacy needs across the 11 counties in the Indiana Uplands region. Thanks to a grant from Regional Opportunity Initiatives (ROI), a nonprofit affiliated with the Community Foundation of Bloomington and Monroe County, faculty and students from Ivy Tech and IU Kelley are now providing digital literacy training and assistance to increase broadband and connectivity awareness in communities and across the region.

After assessing over 120 stakeholders in the region, the need for training in a number of key areas became clear, particularly when it comes to small businesses:

  • Basic Internet Knowledge: How to use the Internet and surf safely.
  • The basics of doing business: ownership, operations, privacy, trademarks and copyrights.
  • Applications: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Zoom/Teams and Google Business Profile
  • Digital Marketing & Advertising: Branding, Social Media, Google and Online Advertising/Paid Advertising.
  • Web development and maintenance: platforms, costs, search engine optimization and being found online.
  • Cybersecurity and Online Privacy: Information Privacy, Disclosure, and How to Protect Yourself.
  • Deploying AI for Business: Artificial Intelligence Use, Regulation, and Disclosures.

Faculty and students from Ivy Tech and IU Kelley have been teaching workshops introducing these important topics, with subject matter experts and students providing one-on-one assistance to individuals, entrepreneurs, and small businesses. To date, we have offered free workshops in Daviess, Dubois, Monroe, Orange, Owen, and Washington counties, with plans to offer workshops in Brown, Crawford, Greene, Lawrence, and Martin counties this summer and fall.

We have heard that there is strong interest from stakeholders in the region in a continued partnership with us, along with significant interest in offering more in-depth education on topics such as cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and online marketing. Sessions will be recorded and distributed to libraries and other community organizations in the Uplands region. Ivy Tech is also a participating organization in the Verizon Small Business Digital Ready program, which allows us to provide free, on-demand access to a wide range of videos on issues relevant to small businesses.

This partnership between Ivy Tech and IU, as well as the funding from ROI, has enabled our rural communities to access the programming they need to improve their entrepreneurial and small business climates, as well as the digital literacy skills of their residents. To learn more about the programming and upcoming workshops, please contact Troy Phelps at the Cook Center at [email protected]. To learn more about Regional Opportunity Initiatives’ digital inclusion efforts, visit their website at https://regionalopportunityinc.org/digital-inclusion-2/.

Stephen Bryant is executive director of the Gayle and Bill Cook Center for Entrepreneurship and regional director of the South Central Small Business Development Center.