This article is part of the EPALE European theme week focusing on: “Learning communities in rural areas”. This topic brings together initiatives from Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary and Poland.

Text: Paula Halme

The Martha Organization operates nationwide, but also in district associations, where the focus is on lifelong learning, togetherness and activities. Martha associations around Finland are also implementing different ways of learning online. Reija Salovaara, Director of Civic Activities and Communications at the Martha Organization, Maija Niskanen, Chair of the Hyrynsalmi Marthas, and Kaisa Salmu, Chair of the Oulunsuu Marthas, weigh the benefits of online training especially from the perspective of the people who live in these regions.

Martha activities turn willingness into action

Reija Salovaara, Director of Civic Activities and Communications at the Martha home economics organization, says that Marthas have many opportunities to learn online, regardless of age or gender.

”In general, the desire to learn new things is a key reason to join and stay in the Martha Organization.. With us, the willingness to do something turns into actual doing,” says Salovaara.

Maija Niskanen, Chair of the Hyrysalmi Marthas, suggests Martat.fi as an excellent platform to find information on household matters. Professionals also provide open guidance on subjects related to home economics through courses, events, a helpline and a chat. Kaisa Salmu, Chair of the Oulunsuu Marthas, also reviews other channels used by the Martha Organization:

”The Martha application for smartphones is a convenient way to learn new things. It allows you to ask questions about different topics, which Marthas will then answer. Marthas also provide help online on Instagram and on the Martat vinkkaa (“Tips from Marthas”) live streams on Facebook.”

You can also build up your skills in a more long-term and goal-oriented manner by completing various skill courses in the Martha Academy's Moodle online environment. The skills gained in subjects like gardening, cooking or handicrafts can be recognised as Open Badges and as course credits entered in the Koski register. Hobby training is currently being renewed and new course modules will also be created in the next few years.

In addition to training that is open to everyone and separately ordered or targeted, the Martha Organization also organises online events and training for its members. Marthas can volunteer to share their thoughts in closed discussion groups, and associations organise remote Martha meetings.

Among other events, Salovaara has trained the members in a chairmanship training organised for about a hundred people, which both Niskanen and Salmu participated in remotely from their own places of residence in Hyrynsalmi and Liminka.

Reija Salovaara knows from experience that it requires a lot of background work to make participants feel that online training is proceeding smoothly and naturally: ”I consider the manuscript of the training carefully: how long speaking and going through assignments will take. At the beginning of the training, it’s also important to review the objectives and rules and create a safe atmosphere, and to make the assignments clear as the training progresses.” Photo: Elvi Rista

Online training creates equality regardless of municipality

Niskanen feels that it is convenient to participate in distance learning and follow the Martha Organization's webinars from home or even the summer cottage. The recordings can even be watched again, if necessary. Niskanen also supports the way online studies are cost-effective, environmentally friendly and use time efficiently when there is no need to travel to training from hundreds of kilometres away.

In addition to the interactive sharing of experiences and being part of the group, what Niskanen has enjoyed about online training is creating her own schedules, searching for information independently and training in a goal-oriented manner.

Maija Niskanen, who has had various roles in the Martha Organization for 28 years, works in the Hyrynsalmi Marthas in Kainuu and names her areas of interest as exercise, reading and baking. ”My most memorable online learning experience with the Martha Organization has been the independently studied Women and Development hobby badge that was an instructive experience in terms of both its content and getting to practice e-learning skills.”

Salovaara is delighted that in online training, it does not matter where you come from, which means that ideas from different parts of Finland meet and perspectives are expanded.

”Then there is no need to reinvent the wheel”, clarifies Salmu.

In Salmu's opinion, the benefits of online studies are that they enable equality regardless of home municipality:

”The threshold for participating in online training is lower, even if you do not live in Helsinki, where national training would often get organised otherwise.”

On the other hand, Salmu states that for some, the threshold to participate in online studies may be higher if the individual’s digital skills are insufficient:

”If you are used remote meetings in your work life, it may test your patience when another participant is still practising the use of the technology. Personally, I would like to see a lot of different elements involved, so that the interest to participate will last more efficiently through the training. On the other hand, I understand that switching platforms in the middle of the training may cause some participants to lose the thread.”

This is why Salovaara has introduced a way to take into account all participants of the training and their different levels of digital skills:

”I will open the lines half an hour before the training, and teach digital skills, like how to find the microphone and camera, to those eager to learn, and make sure that participation is comfortable for everyone.”

Those who have participated in distance learning have been surprised in a positive way to have such friendly encounters with the people behind the screen. ”Getting people to participate in the organization's remote meetings has required tenacity, but the number of older members participating remotely been constantly increasing. Sometimes they have attended the meetings together, using the same computer,” says Kaisa Salmu. Photo: Kerttu Malinen.

Making friends with strangers through remote connection

The three Marthas talk about togetherness, which is realised especially in face-to-face training, but which has also received surprisingly positive feedback from online training participants.

”At the Martha Organization, we learn from each other and practise by doing things together – with the goal of lifelong learning,” says Niskanen.

”In online training, I want to nourish the participants' minds, make the group realise things together and have them share practices that have worked well for them, just like I do when training face-to-face. Wisdom lives in all of us together”, says Salovaara in her role as an instructor.

Salmu, too, feels that the participants are engaged in training together. Her best experience has been seeing how remote connections can be used to get to know people:

”After a course, a stranger contacted me wanting to return to a comment I had made earlier. It was great to notice that I had been able to say something that this person needed and that had stayed with them.”

Kaisa Salmu, who lives 30 km from Oulu in Liminka, considers some of the best features of online learning to be how fast it is to take part in it and its easy integration into daily life: ”If the training only takes a couple of hours, you can put your child down for a nap or sit down together to watch the training.”

Sources and additional reading:

Martat.fi

Facebook page Martat vinkkaa

The Martha Instagram