Money Talks: Arranging Finances for Post Secondary Education
The ability to read confidently, and having sufficient vocabulary for daily life, are two important assets for Avenue learners. In this session, Justin Hunt, the founder of Poodll, introduced reading and vocabulary tools that learners can use on the Avenue platform. These activities provide learners with valuable opportunities to develop their language skills. Instructors can track their learners’s progress, so they can better target their teaching time.
Poodll ReadAloud and Poodll WordCards
The ability to read confidently, and having sufficient vocabulary for daily life, are two important assets for Avenue learners. In this session, Justin Hunt, the founder of Poodll, introduced reading and vocabulary tools that learners can use on the Avenue platform. These activities provide learners with valuable opportunities to develop their language skills. Instructors can track their learners’s progress, so they can better target their teaching time.
Poodll in Assignments, Quizzes and Forums
Presented by Justin Hunt. Justin is the founder of Poodll, a solution that helps language teachers deliver courses online.
The Avenue platform allows students to submit audio and video recordings into assignments, quizzes, forums and other locations. You can create speaking assessments, give students a way to speak to you, or to their peers, allow them to show things via their webcam, and more. You can also give audio and video feedback on student work. This feature uses a tool called Poodll. In this session the Poodll developer will demonstrate how to create and use audio and video recording activities, and give advice on best practices.
Avenue ePortfolio tips tricks
In this session, Paul Carter, Avenue mentor, developer and Live Help agent, demonstrated the latest features of the Avenue ePortfolio and Binder. The session provided an update on Moodle activity types that can be auto-collected to the ePortfolio. It also include a closer look at the Learner Progress Summary and how it relates to the artifacts that are generated in a course.
Strategies and Ideas for Using Avenue with Low CLB Learners
In this webinar, Margaret Stasiak, Avenue Developer and Ontario ESL liaison, demonstrated various strategies, ideas, and tips for using teaching resources available on Avenue with CLB 1-2 and literacy learners. Margaret presented examples of various online activities from units and modules in the Avenue Course Builder, and she discussed practical considerations for using them as is or adapting them for specific needs of low-proficiency and literacy learners. The webinar also included practical tips for using online resources in different modalities.
Using the Language Companion in Your Avenue Course
Nadine Leggett, project manager at Achēv, provided an overview of the newly released professional development training titled Respect and Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples. This self-paced training program explores Indigenous history and culture to enhance instructor’s knowledge and confidence to teach their learners Indigenous topics in their core language training courses.
Margaret Stasiak, Avenue Developer and Ontario ESL liaison, presented instructional content and perspectives for teaching Indigenous topics on Avenue. She demonstrated eUnits and modules available in Avenue’s CourseBuilder, as well as some practices that can help instructors embed Indigenous topics in their lessons, facilitate classroom discussions, and engage learners in meaningful and culturally appropriate learning activities.
Indigenous Content on Avenue – Professional Development and Instructional Materials
Nadine Leggett, project manager at Achēv, provided an overview of the newly released professional development training titled Respect and Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples. This self-paced training program explores Indigenous history and culture to enhance instructor’s knowledge and confidence to teach their learners Indigenous topics in their core language training courses.
Margaret Stasiak, Avenue Developer and Ontario ESL liaison, presented instructional content and perspectives for teaching Indigenous topics on Avenue. She demonstrated eUnits and modules available in Avenue’s CourseBuilder, as well as some practices that can help instructors embed Indigenous topics in their lessons, facilitate classroom discussions, and engage learners in meaningful and culturally appropriate learning activities.
Using the Language Companion in Your Avenue Course
The Language Companion (uder the Binder tab) is available on Avenue in three digital versions, each for a different group of learners; ESL Literacy, Stage I and Stage II. In this webinar, content developer Margaret Stasiak demonstrated and discussed how various sections and features of the Language Companion can be used in skill-building activities, as part of in-class or asynchronous learning. Margaret also presented how the CLB section of Language Companion can be used in a course to support PBLA practices as well as develop self-directed and reflective learning.
Conducting Assessment using the Avenue tools and resources Part 2 Assessing Speaking and Writing
In this webinar, Margaret Stasiak demonstrated how to assess speaking and writing using the tools and resources available on Avenue, specifically Moodle assignment and quiz. Margaret presented examples of various assessment tasks and rubrics for different CLB levels from units and modules in the Avenue Course Builder, focusing on applying the principles of PBLA and best practices of online teaching. The webinar included a discussion of practical considerations for designing assessments appropriate for the specific skills and CLB levels for those instructors who would like to create their own content. Margaret also provided tips for administering speaking and writing assessments in different modalities.
Conducting Assessment using Avenue tools and resources (Part 1) – Assessing Listening and Reading
Avenue offers many tools and resources for conducting assessments online. In this webinar, content developer Margaret Stasiak demonstrated assessing listening and reading using the Moodle Quiz. She presented examples of various assessment tasks for different CLB levels from units and modules in the Avenue Course Builder, focusing on applying the principles of PBLA and best practices of online teaching. She also discussed practical considerations for designing assessments appropriate for the specific skills and CLB levels for those instructors who would like to create their own content. Tips for administering listening and reading assessments in different modalities were also provided.
This webinar is Part 1 in the series of two webinars on conducting assessment on Avenue. Part 2 focused on assessing speaking and writing.
Using a sandbox course to manage your course materials
In this webinar, content developer Margaret Stasiak explains how a sandbox course, available via the Avenue Course Builder, is a useful tool for managing instructional materials such as e-activities, resources and assessments. In this webinar, content developer Margaret Stasiak explores how an instructor can use a sandbox course to manage their instructional materials by storing, adapting or creating e-activities, and sharing them with a course they are teaching. The session provides practical tips and suggestions on keeping a course page uncluttered and streamlined to create a better learning/teaching experience.
Avenue Question Banks Demystified
Avenue (Moodle) Question Banks allow teachers to create, preview and edit questions and use them in their Quizzes. Questions are organized in categories and subcategories to allow for faster access, question sharing to avoid duplication questions and eliminate wasted effort. This webinar, by Avenue developer/mentor, demystified Question Banks and showed instructors how they can use them to keep their courses more organized and more efficient. Awareness of how question banks can grow into large banks of questions, will help instructors to control the storage size of their Avenue courses.
