Join us for this three-workshop series in which we will explore technology that helps teachers support neurodivergent learners and learners with learning disabilities.
Topics we will cover
We are going to take a look at neurodiversity and some frameworks that can support the creation of inclusive learning environments. We will also get more familiar with digital tools that support inclusive learning:
- Support for reading and writing
- Support for managing learning
What to expect
In 3 Zoom sessions (90 minutes each), you will:
- Explore various learning challenges and the digital tools that offer support.
- Be welcomed into a space where you can share your experience and your questions with colleagues.
Hearing what other instructors are doing and the questions they have will help you see your work with fresh eyes and validate your experiences.
Check out what is happening next at Workshops at AlphaPlus.
Or you may be interested in a quick update at a Lunch and Learn.
To see what colleagues around the province are achieving with the help of educational technology, join us for a Virtual Showcase.
Are you helping learners prepare for the Canadian Adult Education Credential (CAEC)? If so, don’t forget we offer a guide that can help you build their confidence and get ready for what this relatively new assessment really asks.
Our guide to the CAEC — and how it differs from the GED
The CAEC replaced the General Education Development (GED) test in 2024. In response, AlphaPlus created the Preparing Learners for the Canadian Adult Education Credential online guide to help adult literacy educators make the shift. It’s been one year since we launched the guide, and we want to make sure you haven’t forgotten it exists!
If you’re working with a learner who wants to write the CAEC, you’ll need to understand the test’s principles, the online experience, the question types and how to practise effectively. The CAEC is substantially different from the GED, so preparing learners for it requires a different approach.
Here are a few key differences between the CAEC and the GED:
1. The CAEC features genuinely Canadian content; it’s not a light adaptation of the GED. The social studies test and much of the reading test draw on Canadian institutions, perspectives and current issues — they are not just featured as topics here and there.
2. The thinking required goes deeper. The CAEC’s cognitive complexity framework asks candidates to apply concepts and reason, not just recall facts. This is a step up from more familiar test formats.
>> See this section of the guide: CAEC changes and new features compared to the GED®
3. Science and social studies knowledge is actually tested. Unlike the Ontario Adult Literacy Curriculum Framework (OALCF) Milestones, the CAEC assesses subject-based content. Your learners will need real knowledge of these subjects, not just reading comprehension.
>> See this section of the guide: Using OALCF Milestones and Culminating Tasks with CAEC learners.
4. Question formats are far more varied, including drag-and-drop, ordering and multi-select. Learners will need practice with the format itself (not just the content).
>> See this section of the guide: Multi-faceted test preparation
Get familiar with the CAEC now so you’re ready to teach using emerging tools
CAEC instructional materials such as test-preparation workbooks are starting to roll out and become available for purchase. So now is a good time to get ready for them by returning to our free CAEC guide:
- Our guide can help you put the CAEC and the emerging materials into context and make decisions about the right tools for you and your learners.
- There’s a difference between how to teach for CAEC preparation and how to take the test (the focus of the workbooks). We’re helping educators with the former.
- With the guidance of subject matter experts, we’ve also built subject-specific prep guides for reading, writing, math, science and social studies — along with curriculum-planning tools and sample question templates you can use directly.
Our guide won’t fill every gap, but because it was created by Ontario educators for Ontario educators, it’s a reliable place to start.
Don’t forget to use (and share) the CAEC guide
If you’ll be working with learners whose goals include writing the assessment, set aside time to work through the AlphaPlus CAEC guide to get you and your learners ready.
Are you looking for a chance to connect with Get SET practitioners from across Ontario to learn about hot topics and share various tips and perspectives?
Join us this Fall for two more Virtual Showcase sessions where we invite guest presenters to discuss and demonstrate how they use digital technology and implement innovative approaches in their programs.
These FREE sessions will be 1.5 hours long and ASL interpretation services will be provided.
This Fall, we will focus on:
AI in Get SET programs – annual check in
September 29, 2026, 3 pm to 4:30 pm
Join us for a candid conversation on leveraging AI to transform Get SET programs. You will explore the real-world strategies leaders use to bring their teams along, address staff concerns, and establish smart organizational policies. From streamlining administration and automating workflows to customizing learner resources and boosting participant engagement, this showcase will deliver the practical insights, handy tips, and fresh ideas you can use right away.
Learn more and register for the AI session
Exploring accessibility needs and tools in Get SET programs
October 27, 2026, 3 pm to 4:30 pm
Join us for an insightful conversation on understanding and embedding accessibility into everyday teaching and learning. You will explore strategies to break down digital and instructional barriers, discuss compliance, and learn about building inclusive learning environments. From creating adaptable course materials to selecting assistive technologies and shaping organizational standards, this showcase will deliver actionable tips, concrete examples, and resources you can implement away.
Learn more and register for the Accessibility session
Don’t delay, secure your spot today.
This October join us for an exploration of
how to stay safe in the digital world.
We will meet on Wednesday October 7, 14 and 21, 2026 from 3:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Topics we will cover
We are going to look at curriculum resources and tools for teaching and learning about how to protect ourselves, our devices and our data from online harms. These lessons support the development of knowledge and practices to:
- Identify and avoid potential dangers such as scams, fraud and phishing.
- Identify the Personally Identifiable Information that needs to be protected.
- Recognize privacy risks in online activities.
- Implement basic security measures such as creating strong passwords, using multi-factor authentication and understanding privacy settings.
What to expect
In 3 Zoom sessions (90 minutes each), we will:
- Explore lesson plans that explain where we might experience online harms, what they might be, and what we can do to protect ourselves.
- Learn about websites that provide updated information and tips so we can keep our knowledge current.
- Expand your list of Open Education Resources.
- Experiment with digital tools that support the development of digital skills and competencies.
Hearing what other instructors are doing and the questions they have will help you see your work with fresh eyes and validate your experiences.
Learn Together
Learn Together workshops cover those topics where, as teachers, we may not be comfortable with our level of content expertise or our ability to stay current with constantly evolving developments. These workshops focus on a learn-together approach where teachers and learners can explore the topic together and expertise may be distributed differently. The teacher remains the expert in how to design the learning experience and curate the most effective resources to support that experience. In Learn Together workshops we explore curriculum resources that include teacher-facing guides, instructions, objectives and/or teaching tips and support instructors to:
- Cover a topic comprehensively.
- Build a series of lessons that flow together.
- Learn content alongside learners rather than feel pressure to be the expert.
Check out what is happening next at Workshops at AlphaPlus.
Or you may be interested in a quick update at a Lunch and Learn.
To see what colleagues around the province are achieving with the help of educational technology, join us for a Virtual Showcase.
Are you ready to pick up a few new digital skills this fall?
Our practical, bite-sized Lunch and Learn sessions are coming back!
Starting in September, we’re bringing you four brand-new Tips and Tricks sessions. Each 30-minute Zoom meeting is filled with useful tools, actionable tips and practical insights to help you stay current, save time, and make the most of your digital workflow.
Here’s what’s coming up:
Gemini Canvas Tips and Tricks
Tuesday, September 22, 2026 | 12:30 – 1:00 PM
Get started with Gemini Canvas, Google’s workspace for creating and collaborating with AI.
Learn how to generate and refine content, organize ideas, and create digital quizzes from your materials to review key concepts, strengthen retention, and support personalized learning for you and your learners.
Zoom Whiteboard Tips and Tricks
Tuesday, November 3, 2026 | 12:30 – 1:00 PM
Unlock the potential of Zoom Whiteboard. Learn how to capture ideas, collaborate with teams and learners in real time, and use templates, drawing tools, and sticky notes to bring concepts to life and keep everyone engaged.
Managing Tasks Tips and Tricks
Tuesday, January 5, 2027 | 12:30 – 1:00 PM
Take control of your to-do list! Explore tools for creating task lists, assigning and sharing tasks, setting reminders, and tracking progress so you can stay focused and collaborate more effectively to keep projects on track and reduce duplication.
Google for Nonprofits Tips and Tricks
Tuesday, February 9, 2027 | 12:30 – 1:00 PM
Discover how Google for Nonprofits can support your organization’s mission. Learn about the free and discounted tools available through the program, including Google Workspace, Google Ad Grants, YouTube Nonprofit Program, and Google Earth and Maps features that can help you reduce costs, increase impact and connect with communities.
Don’t miss out! These sessions are perfect for anyone looking to stay sharp, save time, and make the most of today’s digital tools. Learn more at https://alphaplus.ca/our-services/lunch-learn.
Questions? Please contact Monika at monika@alphaplus.ca.
Before things get really busy again in September, we want to remind you that AlphaPlus coaches are available to help you tackle your technology challenges.
Whether you need help with troubleshooting a small problem or implementing a larger technology change, there’s no need to get stuck. We’re here to help keep adult literacy programs moving forward!
Problems your peers have solved with an AlphaPlus coach in their corner
Coaching is free and can take many forms. We can quickly share tips or ideas or work by your side over several weeks or months. So far this year, we’ve helped adult literacy programs with a range of technology issues. Here are three examples:
- Artificial Intelligence (AI): We’ve been helping literacy program leaders with many aspects of AI adoption, from navigating the learning curve to considering the bigger ethical, privacy and environmental impacts. We’ve even helped programs establish organization-wide AI decisions, review AI guidelines and offer staff training.
- Planning tools: We recently helped one group choose the right planning and project management tool for their team. Through our discussions, and testing we now have the familiarity and experience with a range of tools, such as Monday, Asana and Trello, to help you make the right choice and get set up.
- Google Workspace: We’ve helped many programs with Google Workspace, from initial setup to reactivating old accounts to keeping up with the constant changes. Note: If you’re applying for Google Workspace for Nonprofits, start with us! We’ve helped many organizations through the (often complex) process and can offer tips and suggestions.
Line up your coach for this fall.
So head over to our coaching page to get the details and the next steps to getting a coach in your corner!
Monika (English) – monika@alphaplus.ca
Guylaine (French) – guylaine@alphaplus.ca
With all the events we organize and host, it might be hard to keep up with the various dates and the email announcements/reminders we send out.
To make things easier, we have added an Events menu to our website.
We have also organized the events into three colour-coded categories, allowing you to quickly identify different types of activities and find the events most relevant to you.
Workshop Series
Virtual Showcases
Lunch and Learn
We used Google Calendar for AlphaPlus Events because it’s easy to share on a website and gives you an option to add it directly to your own Google Calendar (simply click on Add to Google Calendar in the lower left corner). When added, you will see all upcoming AlphaPlus events alongside your other calendars.
We hope this new tool will help improve visibility, sharing and participation in our events.
Please take a moment to explore the Events menu and feel free to send us feedback and/or share it with your networks.
In March, when we announced the retirement of AlphaPlus team member Christine Pinsent-Johnson, I promised to follow up with more personal reflections about Christine’s impact.
Christine joined the AlphaPlus staff team in 2018, after four years of collaborating with us as a freelance researcher. During her time with us, Christine has helped shape not only what we do but also how we think about supporting educators and communities.
AlphaPlus board member Farra Yasin puts Christine’s contributions into context:
“Christine is a well-respected scholar in adult literacy education who has made an invaluable contribution to our field. Her work addressed the emerging landscape of digital literacies in the 1990s and the era of social media to the present. Her research dug into the roots of large-scale assessment and its impact on education programming and policies. Her institutional knowledge and commitment to adult education programming will be missed, but I know she will continue to be an advocate of digital affordance to empower our communities.”
A voice for adult literacy educators in Ontario
Christine has always been a voice for the adult literacy sector, asking challenging questions of her AlphaPlus colleagues, the Ministry and the field as a whole. For example, she has consistently called attention to the barriers that learners and educators must overcome. Two lasting examples are the policy papers Christine co-authored with former AlphaPlus staff member Matthias Sturm. One paper illustrates how inequitable access to the internet affects adults in Ontario, and the other explores how adult education is the missing piece to bridging that digital divide.
Looking back, Christine describes the importance of this work: “I’m proud of these policy papers, which explored how the digital divide affects adult literacy learners. Those projects created space to step back and highlight challenges that practitioners experience but rarely have time to articulate themselves.”
Understanding teaching practice
With her empathy for the role educators play and the work they do, Christine has opened my eyes to two big lessons related to teaching practice. The first lesson was about shifting perspectives from deficit thinking. Rather than focusing on what learners are missing, start with what they’re already good at and the goals they want to achieve.
Christine has also re-centred reading and writing as the best long-term strategy for providing people with opportunities and power. At AlphaPlus, this has meant a shift from a “learning about tech” perspective on digital skills to an emphasis on the impact these technologies have on a learner’s ability to read and write.
Practical support that reduces the burden on educators
Christine has pushed very strongly to remind our team that educators, working in this system with all its challenges, don’t need more things to do or learn. Rather, they need us to reduce the burden for them. In the last few years, Christine has translated her insights and critiques of the problems in Ontario’s adult literacy system into practical solutions she has co-created:
- The open educational resources (OER) collection helps literacy programs access hundreds of free workbooks, online modules, learning activities and assessments.
- The Preparing Learners for the Canadian Adult Education Credential (CAEC) guide helps educators get up to speed with the digital, content and cognitive complexity changes learners will need to prepare for this new test.
“Developing an open educational resources collection and supporting educators as they began working with the new Canadian Adult Education Credential were also meaningful parts of my time here,” shares Christine. “Both aimed, in small ways, to ease pressures on educators’ limited time while offering flexible supports that respect their professional judgment and diverse teaching contexts.”
Christine’s legacy and impact on AlphaPlus
The expertise Christine brought to her role spanned policy, research, curriculum development and on-the-ground experience as a literacy volunteer, tutor coordinator and instructor. She created a mindset shift within AlphaPlus, and her influence will continue to shape our work for months and years to come. It feels fitting to leave the final word to her:
“While I’m stepping away from my formal position, I’m not leaving these conversations behind. I look forward to continuing to explore projects that highlight the amazing work and challenges that practitioners experience.
As I move on, I want to acknowledge the educators who sustain this field every day. Adult literacy work is often invisible, yet it calls for deep expertise, adaptability and commitment. I’m grateful for what I’ve learned from this community, and it has been a privilege to contribute in small ways to that ongoing work.”
Warmly,
Alan Cherwinski
Executive Director, AlphaPlus
Express yourself creatively
This June, join us for an exploration of how to keep creativity flowing in the literacy classroom. We are going to take a dive into resources, tools and approaches that support creative writing instruction.
What to expect
In 3 Zoom sessions (90 minutes each), we will:
- Explore lesson plans that encourage creative expression, reading and writing.
- Tap into your own creativity.
- Expand your list of Open Education Resources.
- Experiment with digital tools that can support writing skills and the development of digital competencies.
Start the summer inspired
- Hearing what other instructors are doing in their classroom, how they are innovating, will help you see your work with fresh eyes and validate your experiences.
- Having an opportunity to play and create is a powerful way to renew your energy, purpose, and excitement about your work.
- After the workshops, take the summer to reflect upon what inspires you creatively and what might similarly inspire the learners in your program.
This training series is three workshops: Wednesday June 10, 17 and 24, 2026 from 3:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
See what happened
See what other workshop series are coming up: Workshops at AlphaPlus
Or you may be interested in a quick update at a Lunch and Learn.
And to see what colleagues around the province are achieving with the help of educational technology, join us for a Virtual Showcase.
Lunch and Learn sessions are back this spring.
Get ready to level up your digital skills with two more Tips and Tricks sessions coming up in April and May 2026! Whether you’re looking to streamline your workflow, explore new tools, or stay ahead of tech trends, these quick 30-minute sessions are packed with practical insights and hands-on tips.
Here’s what’s coming up:
Passwords, Pins & Passkeys Tips and Tricks
Tuesday, May 12, 2026, 12:30–1:00 pm
Keeping our online accounts secure is important and with all the passwords, PINs, passkeys, and verification codes things can get confusing. Join us for a fast, practical 30‑minute session that breaks down the essentials of modern sign‑in security in clear, everyday language. Whether you consider yourself tech‑comfortable or tech‑cautious, this session will help you build stronger, safer digital habits.
Canva for Education Tips and Tricks
Tuesday, April 7, 2026, 12:30–1:00 pm
Canva for Education offers a wide range of activities, presentations, whiteboards, and courses you can use directly with your learners. While full access is currently limited to school boards, many of Canva’s educational tools and templates are also available through nonprofit accounts. Join us for a fast 30-minute Lunch & Learn session toto explore practical shortcuts, tips, and classroom ideas to help you make the most of Canva.
Don’t miss out! These sessions are perfect for anyone looking to stay sharp, save time, and make the most of today’s tech tools.
Learn more and see recordings from past sessions at https://alphaplus.ca/our-services/lunch-learn.