What is a learning management system (LMS)?
An LMS is a platform that provides tools and resources for educators to create interactive multimedia activities and lessons in an online environment that can be facilitated, self-directed and/or collaborative. Most LMSs allow participants and facilitators to create schedules, track progress, communicate with each other and in groups, and provide and respond to feedback.
If you learn one LMS, your skills and knowledge as a learner, creator or facilitator can be easily transferred to another LMS.
Choosing an LMS
AlphaPlus can help you choose an LMS for use in your program.
We can:
Here are examples of charts we made to help programs choose between LMSs:
Supporting the use of LMSs in Ontario literacy programs
AlphaPlus supports Ontario literacy practitioners in the use of LMSs to create blended or remote learning opportunities for literacy learners, staff and volunteers.
AlphaPlus supports practitioners who are using Moodle. Get in touch if you want coaching or need some guidance when you get stuck.
AlphaPlus coaches also support Ontario literacy practitioners who have access to Brightspace (by Desire to Learn, now D2L), Blackboard and/or Google Classroom.
AlphaPlus has developed expertise in a robust, free, ad-free LMS called Canvas (by Instructure), which is being used by an increasing number of programs.
AlphaPlus has advanced the use of Moodle since 2007 because it’s a free, open-source, community-based learning management system (LMS) that’s designed using sound, democratic pedagogical principles.
We support practitioners who are using Moodle. Get in touch if you want coaching or need some guidance when you get stuck.
Our Educator Network (eNet) and Planning Your Digital Toolbox courses use Moodle.
AlphaPlus hosts the Moodle websites listed below:
Online classrooms and courses for adult learners
Online classrooms and courses for educators
The barrier to using Moodle for many programs is the cost of hosting and support.
AlphaPlus can help you choose an alternative for use in your classroom or program.
A HyperDoc is a teaching and learning tool that helps you organize content and instructional activities using text, audio, video, images and, of course, hyperlinks. Think of it as an interactive lesson or unit plan.
HyperDocs can be short, specific lessons, like introduction to fractions and their uses. They can also be more general and then applied to different topics and subjects, like the inquiry template. They can even be a comprehensive collection of learning activities, resources and ideas that you can use to develop smaller lessons or modules, like digital storytelling ideas.
Creating a single HyperDoc does take time and effort. But what if it’s not all up to you to do the work? What if we could build a collection — sort of a crowdsourced effort? This is something we’re currently exploring.
AlphaPlus developed four HyperDocs to model their use and help you transition from paper to digital planning and activity development.
Visit the Hyperdocs site to learn more:
In 2018, a college upgrading instructor came to AlphaPlus with an idea.
He had developed an assessment tool to determine whether literacy and adult upgrading (AU)Nlearners were ready for the ways they would be using digital technology as post-secondary students. He wanted to enhance that resource and make it available to all literacy and basic skills (LBS) instructors.
Six other LBS college instructors joined him and worked with AlphaPlus and the College Sector Committee for Adult Upgrading (CSCAU) to determine the digital technology skills that learners need as they enter post-secondary education.
The working group developed assessment tools that college LBS/AU programs can use to help assess their learners’ digital skills readiness for transition to post-secondary studies.
Learners can try out their skills and knowledge in a quiz and a set of holistic assessment activities for Microsoft Word, Powerpoint and Excel. There are two versions of each of the holistic assessment activities that cover the same set of skills in different contexts and that can be used as a pre- and post-assessments.
If learners find that they need to work on a particular skill or suite of skills, we’ve collected learning resources to help with that: Technology Readiness
AlphaPlus curated a collection of shareable, free and high-quality learning materials that adult literacy educators can use to enhance their personal and program collections.
Learning materials
The collection is divided into five sections for learners working at Ontario Adult Literacy Curriculum Framework (OALCF) Levels 1 and 2:
Shareable
We looked for materials that could be copied, printed or posted in online and offline environments. This means you can add materials to a website or learning management platform, attach them to an email or share them with learners in Google Drive. They can also be printed. In addition, some materials are templates or permit adaptations, allowing you to build and modify materials for your own use. Copyright information and Creative Commons licensing details are included for all materials.
Download a PDF version below or click here to open the collection in your Google Drive.
Today, there are 2 million applications available in the App Store. That can make it tough to find the right one for your literacy program, especially if you aren’t sure what you’re looking for. That’s why we’re giving you tips, hints, and tricks for finding apps from scratch.
WHAT TO CONSIDER WHEN EVALUATING APPS
HOW TO FIND WHAT YOU’RE LOOKING FOR IN THE APP STORE
What Is Blended Learning?
Blended learning is an approach where educators leverage technology and digital access for learners to create, communicate, collaborate and apply critical thinking skills to construct knowledge in our connected world. The four Cs — collaborative, communicative, creative and critical— are concepts that help educators make decisions about the ways they blend online and offline activities and integrate technology to support literacy, language and numeracy development.
The State of Blended Learning in LBS
Ontario’s Literacy and Basic Skills (LBS) Program supports the integration of technology in face-to-face learning centres and classrooms, and offers exclusively online courses through e-Channel. The pandemic crisis forced many LBS educators to rapidly expand their integration of technology to provide remote learning options. Although LBS educators were able to facilitate access to e-Channel courses for learners, the vast majority adopted the use of a variety of communications and instructional technologies that considered learners’ digital access and readiness to learn online.
Digital technology can support personalized learning in several ways:
AlphaPlus created this site in December 2018 for a community-based adult literacy program we were working with in Toronto. They were looking at increasing the use of tablets and were interested to see how digital technology could enhance an instructor’s capacity to personalize learning for a group with diverse needs, goals and desires.
If you’re interested in exploring the ways digital technology can personalize or individualize learning, please get in touch.
If you’d like a copy of this site to use as a starting point to adapt and expand for use in your program, please get in touch. AlphaPlus can give you a copy and support you in learning how to use a website builder such as Google Sites or Weebly as online learning spaces for learners, staff and volunteers.
People with number sense can use numbers flexibly. When we want to multiply seven by eight, we may have memorized our times tables and know that it is 56. But what if we forget? Someone with number sense would also be able to work out that seven times seven is 49 and then add seven to make 56, or they may work out 10 sevens and subtract two sevens (70 – 14 = 56). In this webinar, we looked at research about number sense, some promising practices and how digital technology can support the development of number sense.
AlphaPlus staff worked with Audrey Gardner and Matthias Sturm on a paper that describes blended learning in literacy and basic skills. We looked at the research, what academics say, what other educators are doing, what literacy practitioners in other jurisdictions are doing and what we are doing here in Ontario. In this March 13, 2018 webinar, we shared what we learned and asked you about your own experiences with blended learning.