Community Literacy of Ontario

Community Literacy of Ontario was pleased to host its first ever Online Resource Fair in April 2011. We are happy to report that it was a great success. Over 20 community-based literacy practitioners from across the province met on Centra to learn about and share resources related to online learning for adult students.

CLO is delighted to be hosting an online workshop in May 2011 on Centra about Performance Management.

CLO will be offering an innovative workshop called “Cool Tools Rule: Using Social Media to Educate, Engage and Inspire” online on Centra to CLO member agencies in September 2011.

Community Literacy of Ontario has received funding from the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities for a project called “Best Practices in Online Learning for Adult Literacy Students Learning at the Lowest Levels of Literacy”. CLO will research how online learning for adult learners at the lowest literacy levels is being delivered in Ontario’s literacy agencies. We will also assess the benefits, barriers, strategies and best practices.  We then will develop a resource guide that summarizes the research and best practices. In December 2011, this guide will be available online. CLO will also develop an annotated online listing of helpful online instructional resources.

CLO is hosting a project called “Guide to Effective Technologies and Tools for Providing Online Staff Development and Training”. CLO will research various technologies for online staff training, for example, webinars, podcasting, online video training, web-based training modules, and several online learning platforms.  CLO will then write a “Guide to Effective Technologies and Tools for Providing Online Staff Development and Training”. This guide will be posted on our website in September 2011. CLO is grateful to the Employment Ontario Network Development Fund for sponsoring this project.  

CLO was pleased to develop a partnership with Imagine Canada’s Insurance and Liability Resource Centre to deliver two workshops on Risk Management online on Centra in spring 2010.

Community Literacy of Ontario received funding from MTCU for a project called: Online Promotion of Literacy to Employment Ontario Partners. In this project, CLO created six online presentations designed to educate stakeholders about literacy. CLO’s presentations cover the following topics:  1) What is literacy?; 2) Recognizing literacy; 3) Literacy and Basic Skills in Ontario; 4) Making referrals; 5) Literacy and employment; and 6) Learner success stories. These resources were launched in June 2010. These online presentations were created using Adobe Presenter and are available at: www.nald.ca/clo/presentations.htm

In honour of the hardworking, skilled and committed literacy volunteers working in community-based literacy agencies all across this province, CLO developed a new website called “Literacy Volunteers Value Added”. This website celebrates the amazing economic and social contributions of literacy volunteers. This website was launched in September 2011. See: www.nald.ca/literacyvolunteers/

CLO was pleased to offer a webinar for its members programs on “Charitable Receipting Practices and Legal Compliance” in January 2011. CLO is grateful for our partnership with the Ontario Community Support Association who supported the delivery of this special webinar. To access the recorded version of the “Charitable Receipting Practices and Legal Compliance” webinar click here.

A CLO partnership project, “Getting Online: Distance Education Promising Practices for Canadian Literacy Practitioners” (or the GO Project for short), wrapped up in June 2009. The GO project was an innovative national project designed to research trends, technologies and promising practices in online learning in Canada. The GO team shared the project findings through interactive online training courses and via our website which includes self-study learning modules. The GO team also conducted presentations and wrote a research report, a Promising Practices manual, and four newsletters. All of these valuable resources are available via the GO website.

In October 2009 CLO was pleased to launch its Lifelong Learning for Literacy Practitioners website. This website highlights various issues relating to education and training in the Ontario literacy community. This project was funded by MTCU.

CLO received funding from the Employment Ontario Network Development Fund for a project called: Building Organizational Capacity in Board Governance. The purpose of our project was to create a high quality online self-study training module on effective board governance practices. This module was launched in December 2009 and is available on CLO’s Literacy Basics website.

As part of our “CIPMS: Online and Interactive” project funded by MTCU, Community Literacy of Ontario developed an online classroom on CIPMS to help literacy practitioners understand and implement CIPMS. This online classroom was offered as facilitated training on Moodle to literacy practitioners in spring 2009. This unique learning environment is still available online in a self-study format at: http://clo.alphaplus.ca/moodle1/

Further, CLO recorded a live, interactive online workshop for literacy practitioners about CIPMS on Centra. It is permanently available on the Contact North site for reviewing by all literacy practitioners at: www.nald.ca/litweb/province/on/clo/resource/cimps_centra/cimps_centra.pdf 

Thanks to funding from the Employment Ontario Network Development Fund, CLO wrote the curriculum for an online, self-study training module called “Employment Ontario and Literacy.” This training module is available at: www.nald.ca/literacybasics/employ-o/intro/01.htm

In 2008-2009, CLO began a two year partnership project called “Getting Online: Distance Education Promising Practices for Canadian Literacy Practitioners” (or the GO Project). This national project was designed to research trends, technologies and promising practices in online learning in Canada. Community Literacy of Ontario was proud to be a partner in this exciting initiative. The GO Project was hosted by Athabasca University. It brought together various project partners including CLO, Writing Out Loud and Capilano University. GO is funded by the National Office of Literacy and Learning. All project resources are available at: www.nald.ca/gettingonline

In 2007/2008 Community Literacy of Ontario offered diverse online training opportunities. We offered live, interactive online training to literacy agencies on Continuous Improvement Performance Management Systems; Marketing and Outreach; Strategic Planning; and the Essential Skills using Centra.

As well, CLO developed self-study, online curriculum on the above topics on “Literacy Basics” training website (www.nald.ca/literacybasics).

CIPMS and Essential Skills were funded by the Ontario Ministry of Training, College and Universities. Marketing was funded by Adult Learning, Literacy and Essential Skills Program (ALLESP), Government of Canada. Strategic planning was funded by the Ontario Trillium Foundation.

Community Literacy of Ontario received funding from the National Literacy Secretariat (HRSDC) for a project called “Literacy Basics Plus.” This project provided both real-time, interactive online training and web-based, self-study training modules to support literacy practitioners.

CLO wrote the curriculum for four self-study, online training modules: Learner recruitment; Learner Retention; Outcomes-based Program Evaluation; and Self-management. These four modules were added to CLO’s online training website called “Literacy Basics” (www.nald.ca/literacybasics).

In addition, CLO delivered four live, interactive online workshops on Centra. Each of these workshops was delivered twice from February to May 2006 to a total of 80 literacy practitioners. The workshop topics were (1) Outcomes-Based Program Evaluation and (2) Learner Recruitment.

Community Literacy of Ontario received project funding from the National Literacy Secretariat (HRSDC) for a project called: Literacy Basics: Just in Time Online Training Modules.

CLO researched and wrote four self-study, online training modules. These “just in time” training modules are: Volunteer Management; Instructional Strategies; Assessment; and Learner Follow-up and Exit Strategies.

CLO, with the support of NALD, developed a highly-regarded training website called “Literacy Basics” to host the four training modules. Literacy Basics is a free, self-study online training website for literacy practitioners. This website was launched to the literacy field on September 28, 2005. Literacy Basics can be found at: www.nald.ca/literacybasics.

As well, CLO developed curriculum for two live, real-time, online, interactive training workshops. The workshop topics were: “Volunteer Management” and “Learner Follow-up and Exit Strategies”. Each workshop was delivered twice for a total of four training events. The workshops were delivered from February – May 2005 using Centra symposium, a state-of-the-art online classroom. Over 80 literacy practitioners took part in these workshops and overwhelmingly positive evaluations were received.

• In cooperation with the Centre for Family Literacy in Alberta, Community Literacy of Ontario offered National Foundational Training in Family Literacy (Phase 3)
• There were 24 participants from literacy agencies and Early Years Centres across Ontario enrolled in this workshop series
• This course had six full-day modules that were delivered once per month from January – June 2005
• This training was delivered online, in real-time using the highly interactive, audio and visual based virtual classroom of Centra Symposium

• In cooperation with the Centre for Family Literacy in Alberta, Community Literacy of Ontario offered National Foundational Training in Family Literacy (Phase 2)
• There were 23 participants from literacy agencies and Early Years Centres across Ontario enrolled in this workshop series
• This course had six full-day modules that were delivered once per month from January – June 2004
• This training was delivered online on Centra Symposium

• In cooperation with the Centre for Family Literacy in Alberta, Community Literacy of Ontario offered National Foundational Training in Family Literacy online to 21 participants from diverse community literacy agencies from across Ontario
• This course had six full-day modules which were delivered once per month from January – June 2003
• The participants in this class were Ontario’s first graduating class!
• CLO's course was also the first online adaptation of the National Foundational Training in Family Literacy in Canada
• This training was delivered online on Centra Symposium

• CLO developed and delivered five online workshops on the following topics related to organizational development:
  
  
  1. Proposal Writing: Effective Strategies
  2. Fee-For-Service: Implementing it in Your Literacy Agency
  3. Program Evaluation: Making it Work
  4. Assessing Your Organizational Capacity
  5. Organizational Outcomes: A Practical Approach
• This training was delivered online on Centra Symposium
• A total of 115 literacy practitioners took part in these workshops