These energizing and inspiring Zoom sessions showcase how innovative Ontario literacy program workers and instructors use digital tools and approaches to connect and work with learners and colleagues remotely.

Each session features guest presenters who share their approaches, strategies and tips followed by a Tech Q&A to explore some of the digital tools mentioned during the session.

Yet another inspiration to try something new to help my learners!

There is a vast amount of knowledge out there and to be able to listen to how people are using the various apps/tools was very informative.

It was such an informative couple of hours. Many bits of information stood out. The sharing of information was so exceptional.

An environmental scan of LBS programs indicated that a number of different tools and processes were being used to track data across all three sectors, and while the tools worked, duplication and inefficient data sharing was a concern.

Sioux-Hudson, a community-based literacy program, procured and implemented a student information system called Orbund and found that the system meets their needs for case management and that they could successfully customize it to align with ministry data requirements and their own internal needs.

The cost of Orbund is prohibitive for an individual program but is more manageable if individual programs can share an enterprise license. AlphaPlus provided a three-year license to pilot programs who are willing and able to help identify gaps/issues and work with AlphaPlus and Orbund to work through these issues before rolling it out to other programs.

After seeing Orbund in action, staff in the pilot programs felt it will help streamline and advance case management administration. Read the report to learn how Orbund worked for these organizations and the next steps for the implementation of Orbund.

In 2017, AlphaPlus was asked by a sector membership group for information on options for digital literacy and basic skills (LBS) learner files and cloud – based storage.

The sector members identified a primary driver for the investigation as the burden of physically storing more than seven years of learner files. Space in multi-service facilities and school boards is in high demand , and file storage space allocated to LBS service providers can be significantly constrained, causing operational tensions and issues .

This investigation and report is only an initial foundational step. As stakeholder engagement and consensus building takes time, proposed models for thinking about how data is gathered, recorded, confirmed and stored have been provided as a starting point for the discussions.

Together we will explore how Google Sites can be used to set up and manage websites. We will take a closer look at embedding videos, documents, and forms as well.

The recording is no longer available but you can view the slides.

Our guest presenter – Charlotte Parliament, Literacy and Essential Skills Program Coordinator at Simcoe County District School Board – shared how she uses Google Apps, such as Google Sites, Forms, Sheets and Docs, to set up and manage intake, as well as digital skills and learning styles assessments online.

Guest presenter Charlotte Parliament, Literacy and Essential Skills Program Coordinator at Simcoe County District School Board, and AlphaPlus Technology Consultant Monika Jankowska-Pacyna talked about how they built, shared and collect learner satisfaction survey data using Google Forms.

During this webinar, these topics were dicussed:

Navigating online surveys is becoming more common for learners as programs assess clients and gather feedback.

This webinar will outline a lesson plan that helps learners use survey and assessment tools to help them build their confidence and skills to complete them independently . The lesson plan integrates customizable surveys in SurveyMonkey and Google Forms. During this webinar, we will also discuss valuable information about clients’ use of digital survey tools as well as their preferences and best practices.

Quickly find and manage online resources with bookmarking tool, Diigo

Do you have a list of websites you want to reference in a Word document?

How about a bunch of links stored away in various emails in your inbox? In this webinar, we show the simple organizing power of bookmarking tool Diigo.

This tool allows you to amalgamate, simplify, organize and share your collection of links.

This webinar will also reveal useful links from the AlphaPlus Web Index, to add to your own collection of resource links.

Click the download button for Additional Resources and Tips.

Protopage is a free and easy-to-use RSS reader, Internet start page and virtual desktop. If you have ever wished to be able to easily collect, store and find web pages, bookmarks and notes, then Protopage is the tool for you. Learn how easy it is to stay on top of what’s happening in adult education, technology and the world. This tool also allows you to easily save bookmarks and notes all in one place and for free!

This 2017 webinar provides an overview of Dropbox and how it can be used as an alternative for an internal network that enables resources sharing and back up of files.

Dropbox and Google have competed to provide cloud storage and file sharing. We review how Dropbox works and what makes it different from Google Drive. We have a quick look at productivity tools and sharing features before outlining how Dropbox has been used in LBS programs to create a local “network”.

No more getting that USB stick and going from one lab computer to the next to copy learning activities. We look at how you can “network” computers with Dropbox, how you can share folders and files, and how you can use Dropbox as an automatic and remote backup.