Synopsis
In this extended conversation, Avenue Digital News speaks with Sara Dos Santos, Digital Navigator and LINC Instructor with the Columbia Basin Alliance for Literacy (CBAL), and Shayna Jepsen, CBAL’s Language Program Coordinator.
Together with Rob McBride, Executive Director of New Language Solutions, they explore the unique challenges and opportunities of delivering settlement language training across a vast rural region in British Columbia.
They discuss learner onboarding, the pivotal role of digital navigation, strategies for supporting both teachers and students with diverse digital skills, and CBAL’s innovative use of Avenue to create continuity, confidence, and community within the LINC program.
Generative AI was used to help organize and edit the original interview transcript. It helped break long answers into shorter sections, add clarifying questions, and improve readability, while keeping the interviewee’s words, meaning, and perspective intact.



