LINC Service Provider Survey

  • September 29, 2020

In our ongoing effort to build our database of LINC service providers, please take a few minutes to enter information for your organization in our online survey. We are also anxious to collect information about service provider responses to the COVID-19 pandemic so the survey has a number of additional questions. The survey takes about ten minutes to complete. Individual responses are confidential, but we will share the overall results of the survey in the digital newsletter and the next issue of the Avenue bulletin.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/linc-spos?&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=avenueca_is_here_irccs_digital_learning_platform_for_the_settlement_language_training_sector&utm_term=2020-09-21

Digital Newsletter

  • September 29, 2020

The Avenue – LearnIT2teach Project produces 11 monthly issues of its digital newsletter a year. To be informed on project news and get expert tips and advice about learning technology in language training, please consider subscribing. Here is the link to the latest newsletter and a subscription form: http://learnit2teach.ca/wpnew/news/

Also, please find us on Twitter @learnit2teach!

Our Project Response to COVID-19

  • September 29, 2020

Just like all LINC service providers, the project was caught by surprise by the pandemic and the suspension of face-to-face classes. Early on, we identified two groups of teachers by their preparedness to pivot to online teaching when the COVID crisis began:

  1. Teachers who already employed a LINC blended learning strategy in their face to face instruction, and whose learners had been oriented to using Moodle and information technology in their learning;
  2. Teachers who had previously made minimal use of information technology. A sub-set of the second group was teachers who personally had limited skills with information technology.

The first group of teachers and their learners were clearly better prepared to shift from face-to-face to online learning but teachers still needed our help to adapt blended learning courseware to online distance delivery. The second group needed urgent interventions and assistance to minimize frustrations and help them enable online learning and coach their learners through the courseware set up and orientation required.

The project responded with six initiatives:

  • Webinars to help teachers transition from both LINC Blended Learning or no significant use of online technologies to online distance learning: From April to the end of June, twenty Zoom webinars were developed, delivered and archived to coach teachers through relevant issues.
  • Live Help: The hours of our synchronous online chat link to learning technology experts were extended by one-hour per day Monday to Friday.
  • EduLINC Teacher Forum: A discussion forum was created in EduLINC and all the active teachers in the system were automatically registered. The forum has become a very active venue for sharing of challenges, barriers, expert help and opportunities.
  • COVID-19 Bulletin mail out: A bulk email to all the SPOs in our database (about 240) was written and distributed. The focus was on informing SPOs about our initiatives to support their local response to the pandemic.
  • Streaming Video: In preparation for the launch of Avenue on August 17th, a 13-minute video was researched, scripted and developed. The video describes the history and aims of the project, the project response to COVID-19, and the new Avenue solution to online and blended learning.
  • LearnIT2teach Training Updates: The training has been modified to better prepare teachers for online teaching. Changes include a new course to enhance the basic digital skills of teachers and a new section in Stage 3 with strategies for teaching fully online.

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to present challenges and surprises. With many LINC programs returning in September after summer breaks, we don’t know whether service providers will be able to engage immediately with face-to-face teaching or be obliged to continue with online distance learning. If face-to-face learning is possible, even temporarily, it will be an opportunity for non-participating programs and teachers to orient their teachers and learners to Avenue. A resumption of face-to-face will enable outlier service providers to engage with better practices in online distance learning should a suspension of face-to-face again become necessary.

The Avenue project must continue to be nimble in our responses to changing conditions. Fortunately, our network of expert mentors continues to be a strength of the project. They number 18 and are spread from coast to coast. The project still has capacity to welcome more teachers and service providers and enable language teaching professionals to provide LINC online or blended learning.

Avenue pour CLIC

  • September 29, 2020

Nous voulons attirer l’attention des organismes qui offrent CLIC : le système de gestion de l’apprentissage MOODLE, pour LINC ainsi que pour CLIC, est identique.

Que la formation linguistique soit en ligne ou hybride, les enseignantes et enseignants qui enseignent les cours CLIC disposent désormais d’un support virtuel moderne qui intègre les quatre compétences.

De nombreuses ressources d’apprentissage en ligne ont été élaborées pour LINC au cours des treize dernières années et sont facilement accessibles dans Avenue.

Cependant, des ressources ne sont pas encore disponibles pour l’apprentissage du français.

Toutefois, grâce au projet « TELL ON » et au ministère des Services à l’enfance et des Services sociaux et communautaires de l’Ontario, un certain nombre de ressources en ligne pour le français langue seconde déposées sur Tutela seront bientôt disponibles directement à partir de Avenue.

Le projet « Avenue – LearnIT2teach » est prêt à appuyer l’innovation technologique pour les cours CLIC. Nous sommes à votre disposition pour répondre à vos demandes de renseignements afin de faire progresser CLIC et de créer des occasions d’apprentissage en ligne et hybride pour les apprenantes et apprenants.

Pour de plus amples renseignements, nous vous invitons à communiquer avec Gilles Aubry à Gilles@avenue.ca.

AVENUE.CA IS HERE!

  • September 29, 2020

IRCC’s new solution for online and blended settlement language training

The time is now for a much improved and enhanced Moodle-based national learning management system for English and French settlement language training. EduLINC has been serving the LINC Sector for ten years, but it needed to do more.

Avenue, like EduLINC, is a four-skill modern solution to online or blended language training. Logging into Avenue also means logging into Tutela, providing access to hundreds of Made-in-Canada learning resources for LINC. The Avenue learning management system runs on the latest version of Moodle, and includes new activities, such as the Workshop module and improvements to existing activities such as H5P.

Avenue will offer more tools to administrators and teachers, including a user account manager giving teachers control over their course enrolments, student accounts and making it easier to move students between classes. Avenue supports modernized task-based learning through an e-Portfolio solution and a growing inventory of PBLA-aligned learning resources.

Mid August

  • Teacher accounts emailed
  • Migrated courses
  • New courseware
  • Orientation video (teachers)
  • Updated LearnIT2teach teacher training
  • ePortfolio solution released

Early September

  • Account manager/assign learner accounts
  • Learner orientation video
  • Course delivery
  • September – December
  • Teacher accounts set up/Course migration ongoing

December

  • 15th – Avenue accounts to all teachers
  • 23rd – Course delivery ends on EduLINC
  • Course migration
To learn more details of the Avenue solution and the New LanguageSolutions response to COVID-19, watch a 13-minute video introduction to Avenue.

You can also follow up that video by watching an archived Zoom Tour of Avenue by our Manager of Distributed Learning, Jim Edgar.

On Friday, September 11th, our Project Manager of Distributed Learning, Jim Edgar, presented a Zoom webinar on 10 Reasons to Migrate to Avenue from EduLINC.

This 30-minute presentation explored ten reasons for teachers using EduLINC to migrate to Avenue.ca, IRCC’s new national web portal for settlement language training. The session included an overview of Avenue and demonstrated some features currently available at the site. Avenue development is ongoing and the presentation included information about updates in the coming months.

We hope to see you on the Avenue!

Avenue.ca is here!

  • August 18, 2020

IRCC’s new solution for online and blended settlement language training

The time is now for a new Moodle-based national learning management system for English and French settlement language training.  EduLINC has been serving the LINC Sector for ten years, but it needed to do more. The Avenue learning management system runs on the latest version of Moodle, and includes new activities, such as the workshop module, and improvements to existing activities, such as H5P and an electronic portfolio solution.  Teachers will have direct access to learning resources on Tutela when they log in. Avenue will offer more tools to administrators and teachers, including a user account manager giving teachers control over their course enrolments, student accounts and making it easier to move students between classes. 

To learn more details of the Avenue solution and the New Language Solutions response to COVID-19, watch a 13-minute video snapshot of Avenue, click here. You can also follow up that video by watching an archived Tour of Avenue by our Manager of Distributed Learning, Jim Edgar.

See you on the Avenue?

Avenue Update: Archived Zoom Webinar

  • July 3, 2020

Avenue is coming. On June 26th Jim Edgar, the LearnIT2teach-Avenue Project Manager of Distributed Learning, presented a Zoom webinar with an overview of Avenue, a discussion of release timelines and teacher course migrations, and a demonstration of the new portal and the learning management system (LMS). Avenue has been under development since January 2019 and by the end of this calendar year it will replace the EduLINC and LearnIT2teach LMSs.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjEE6yYgWXA&feature=youtu.be

What is the Digital Divide and what does it mean for our learners?

  • June 29, 2020

The lack of learner access to the Internet and information technology has long been a concern to professionals in the settlement language training sector. The opportunity for newcomers to engage with information technology is essential to successful adaptation to life in Canada in 2020. Now the suspension of face-to-face classes and the need to support learners with online distance solutions has amplified the importance to our clients of access to smart devices and the Internet. We’ve put together this infographic to clarify the difference between equitable access and non-access.

Digital Divide

Digital Divide PDF

New Part 1 Learning Technology Leadership Group Begins Tuesday, September 8th, 2020!

  • May 27, 2020

Six-week course is online and mentored

If you are a professional in an IRCC program looking to lead innovation in a LINC or ELT program, we have two-part Moodle-based online training to offer. Each part has six weekly units and the time demand is about two hours per unit. The course content includes readings, podcasts and videos, and course activities encourage sharing and collaboration with peers in the sector.

Google Form Sign Up

Part 1, a pre–requisite for Part 2, focuses on:

  • An orientation to Computer-assisted language learning (CALL) historically, and Technology-enhanced Language Learning (TELL) more currently. In the TELL class, learning technology is threaded through learning to be as pervasive and encompassing as information technology is in everyday life;
  • Blended learning as a language training practice;
  • The blended learning courseware and hosting provided by the LearnIT2teach to the LINC sector at Avenue.ca;
  • The teacher training options provided by the LearnIT2teach Project to IRCC-funded language training professionals.

Part 2 focuses on:

  • Case studies of LINC blended learning implementation together with practical tips and strategies;
  • Developing personal leadership skills to support learning technology innovation in a language training program;
  • Increasing knowledge of theory, evidence and better learning technology practices in the language training sector;
  • Formulating arguments and strategies to encourage and enable learning technology innovation within an organization, and with clients and funders;

Articulating the outline of a plan for local learning technology innovation.

If you are looking to delve deeper into the question of innovation in the settlement language training sector, use the Google Form to sign up for the September 8 group or indicate your interest in doing the course later.

Here are some comments from participants in the course:

“I would say that this course successfully took my knowledge of computers in the classroom through a profound paradigm shift. What I had previously seen as computer assisted language learning was only the tip of the learning opportunity iceberg. By looking at the use of technology to enhance what goes on in the language classroom, this allowed the door of expanding technology to be pushed wide open. Technology has a huge part to play to not only assist but enhance language learning. The Edulinc [Avenue] Courseware already created along with the amazing LMS tools available can make instructors jobs easier and more rewarding. With the concept of the flipped classroom, Teachers can be freed up to work one on one with students helping them develop skills at the students own pace instead of being the talking head at the front of the room. I am truly convinced this shift can and will be made in LINC classrooms in the future.”

“The six modules that we’ve gone through actually got me to refocus on my own understanding and gave me opportunities to think both deeper and wider on technology and blended learning in the language classroom. I really appreciate the integration of a wide range of materials and topics related to blended learning in this course, from theories to process and to the latest applications of technology in the educational fields. It has now dawned on me that our settlement language training sector has a lot to catch up to align with the 21st century. It is intimidating to a lot of our instructors because we are at the cross road between the old and new, and the new is approaching so fast. You don’t know how much you’re behind until you have the chance to see what’s out there. This course opens my eyes.”

“I’ve really enjoyed this online learning experience. It has been a pleasure reading all the well written posts from the group on the forum. I look forward to starting the next phase. The real work awaits with the plan on implementation.”

Webinar Recording: Introduction to H5P Basics for EduLINC Instructors

  • May 27, 2020

This May 22nd webinar by LearnIT2teach senior developer and mentor John Allan explains how teachers can find and add pre-made H5P learning objects to their EduLINC courses. John also demonstrates how to create a basic learning object using H5P. LearnIT2teach channel youtube recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r38UZSpLueQ&feature=youtu.be