Adult Learning Alberta - New Website to Connect Adult Learners to Online CALP Learning Opportunities

Monica Sczyrba-Davis, Pincher Creek Community Adult Learning Council Society

3 23 February 2021

We are growing something new together!

Pincher Creek Community Adult Learning has been part of an exciting new initiative over the last few months.

Background:

In the spring of 2020, in the early days of the COVID -19 pandemic, in the middle of the provincial “lockdown”, many CALPs identified the need to stay connected and continue serving adult foundational learners remotely. From the many conversations about how we as a system were going to do this, an idea was born! What if learners could access more online learning opportunities, when it makes sense for them, even if the learning wasn’t offered by their own local CALP?

Have you seen www.adultlearningalberta.ca yet?

The Intention of this new website is:

to extend the reach of CALPs and to increase access to relevant CALP learning opportunities for adult learners.
to create further collaboration and connectivity within the CALP community.

Seven CALPs from different parts of the province have worked together to bring this new website to life. The CALPs who have led the development, planning and pilot of this new website include:

Hanna Learning Centre
Hinton Adult Learning
Pincher Creek Community Adult Learning
READ On (Lethbridge Public Library)
Rocky Learning Centre
SAIL (Strathmore Public Library)
Taber and District Adult Learning Association

The 5 W's of Adult Learning Alberta

Who is the site for?

The website is for CALP organizations and practitioners to:

be aware of online learning opportunities that might help the learners in your community,
offer your online programs to a wider, provincial audience to help fill your existing program offerings,
encourage learners who are ready to investigate the site and find new or different online learning opportunities that may enhance their learning.

What does the site do?

The site increases access and variety of online program opportunities for adult learners anywhere in Alberta.

Learners will have access to programs that they may otherwise not have been able to participate in, either because it isn’t available in their own community, or it doesn’t fit their schedule, etc.

For example, I may have a Learner in my community that can only learn at 7pm on Thursday evenings, I may not have the opportunity in my location, but could connect that learner to an appropriate online class elsewhere in the province.

Maybe digital skills, skills for learning, or another specialized program isn’t offered regularly in your location at this time, but you can connect a learner to an existing CALP opportunity online.

Or…

Say you have a Zoom Blackfoot Language community capacity building class with 4 learners but have room for 4 more. You share your course through the www.adultlearningalberta.ca website and your class is now full!

Where can I find it?

Go to www.adultlearningalberta.ca to see the calendar of online learning being offered by CALPs across the province. The courses listed on the site will be hosted by individual CALPs, but offered virtually to both local and provincial learners. This means more learners can access more online opportunities from their home, when online learning is a good fit for them.

How do we help learners connect to these learning opportunities?

When you visit the searchable calendar at https://adultlearningalberta.ca/events, each learning opportunity on the calendar will include information about the program, the hosting CALP, and how learners can register or find more information. The courses and registration is all managed by each individual CALP; the new website will tell you what you need to know to get in touch with the host.

So What? So, if you have learners in need of specific opportunities or you have an online CALP program that needs learners, visit www.adultlearningalberta.ca!

If you want to share an online CALP learning opportunity with the province, this can be done by registering to get an account with www.adultlearningalberta.ca.

Our working group has developed a set of Community Standards for posting to the site, reporting on learners, and collecting and sharing evaluation data. You can check them out here: https://adultlearningalberta.ca/community-standards

Our CALP in Pincher Creek is very excited to move from: “I’m so sorry; we don’t have that class at that time” to “Yes! We can connect you with our sister CALP in ______, there are several online options that will fit your needs. Our Tech Tutor can help you feel comfortable with online learning so you feel ready to join in on this opportunity when it begins!”

Want to learn more?

Our project committee looks forward to further strengthening the bonds we all share with each other and our clients; this evolution of access to learning is an opportunity to place further trust in the innovative and excellent work we are all doing. If you’d like to learn more about the project and the site, we invite you to join our Project Committee for an informal Q and A session on Tuesday, March 2nd at 11:30 am.

You can register for the session on the Portal at https://calp.ca/events/adult-learning-alberta-q-and-a-with-project-committee.htm.