Using Northstar?

Submitted by Sara Cole on Sat, 10/03/2020 - 10:21
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Hello Integrating Technology Friends,

My name is Sara, and I work both as an instructor as well as in a novel position as a "digital literacy fellow" at an adult education non-profit. In my role as the digital literacy fellow, I've been tasked to identify and select a tool for assessing students' digital literacy as they go through orientation at our organization. We serve folks looking to improve their English language skills as well as folks seeking a high school equivalency. So far, the most promising assessment I have found so far is Northstar. I've had teachers at my organization take it and give me feedback on how they feel their students would do with it.

While it seems really promising and the best I've seen, we are concerned with how students with lower English proficiency might be able to access the test. We're worried that the language involved with the test might be a barrier to accurately assessing what tech literacy folks genuinely already have because of unfamiliarity with the vocab and sentence structure of some of the questions and instructions. 

Have any of you used Northstar at your agencies to assess students, particularly English language learners? What did you think? 

Have you used it with low English proficiency students? Beginners and folks with low print literacy? 

Are you aware of any digital literacy assessments for students with very limited English? 

How do you assess digital literacy in students with very limited English? 

Any and all thoughts and comments are helpful and most welcome!

 

Thanks for all you do for your students, 

Sara

Comments

Sara, you wrote:

I work both as an instructor as well as in a novel position as a "digital literacy fellow" at an adult education non-profit.

Can you tell us more about how you became a digital literacy fellow, and how other adult basic skills (including ESOL/ESL) education teachers might do this?

In my role as the digital literacy fellow, I've been tasked to identify and select a tool for assessing students' digital literacy as they go through orientation at our organization. We serve folks looking to improve their English language skills as well as folks seeking a high school equivalency. So far, the most promising assessment I have found so far is Northstar. I've had teachers at my organization take it and give me feedback on how they feel their students would do with it.

While it seems really promising and the best I've seen, we are concerned with how students with lower English proficiency might be able to access the test. We're worried that the language involved with the test might be a barrier to accurately assessing what tech literacy folks genuinely already have because of unfamiliarity with the vocab and sentence structure of some of the questions and instructions. 

Have any of you used Northstar at your agencies to assess students, particularly English language learners? What did you think? 

Have you used it with low English proficiency students? Beginners and folks with low print literacy? 

Are you aware of any digital literacy assessments for students with very limited English? 

How do you assess digital literacy in students with very limited English? 

Any and all thoughts and comments are helpful and most welcome!

This is a great question, Sara. I have heard some ESL/ESOL teachers express the same concern. I have also heard others who believe that the Northstar Digital Literacy Assessment can be adapted for a low-literate English user. It would be great to hear from others about their experience using Northstar with their adult English language learners.

One possibility might be to use a (free) app that translates English into many other languages, such as Translatr https://translatr.varunmalhotra.xyz/ .  I wonder if other English language teachers here have used this, or other apps, to assist literacy level English language learners, for example who may be literate in their first first language, to succeed in taking the Northstar Digital Literacy assessment.

Sara, you might also want to post your message to the LINCS English Language Acquisition group.

David J. Rosen, Moderator

LINCS CoP Integrating technology group

Hi David, I apologize, I missed this question before: Can you tell us more about how you became a digital literacy fellow, and how other adult basic skills (including ESOL/ESL) education teachers might do this?

The digital literacy fellow position was created to help the organization I worked at in really scaling their efforts in increasing digital literacy skills implementation across all the adult education classes we offer (ESL/ESOL, ABE, HiSet/GED, Family Literacy). My agency created the position as a 1 year leadership opportunity for teaching staff. They raised private funds to ensure there would be a budget for any software or hardware needed for instructors to best implement more digital literacy skills, both with an eye towards student goals of increased digital capacity as well as equipping students with the skills they need to transition to area higher education, training, and career opportunities.  My role in all this is finding or creating assessment for both student and teacher digital skills, developing or adapting appropriate PD, and working with staff and tutors to come up with action plans for implementing more technology and digital skills into their classes. 

I would encourage administrators and program leaders to consider a similar model and figure out how to raise funds. I think using this model works well both as a means to allowing instructional staff to develop leadership as well as having someone with insider knowledge about what opportunities already exist within the program. I'm happy to share the position description that was developed at my agency if folks are interested.

Thanks Sara!

I am delighted to see your reply. You wrote, "I would encourage administrators and program leaders to consider a similar model and figure out how to raise funds. I think using this model works well both as a means to allowing instructional staff to develop leadership as well as having someone with insider knowledge about what opportunities already exist within the program. I'm happy to share the position description that was developed at my agency if folks are interested." 

I agree, it's a great idea that other programs could also benefit from, whether this is a full-time or part-time position. Please do share a link to the job description if you can. I can also post that information to the Program Management group. Perhaps the members there will also be interested.

David J. Rosen, Moderator

LINCS CoP Integrating Technology and Program Management groups

Hi Sara,

Thank you for your questions. I’m the Curriculum Coordinator for Northstar and work with our team to develop learning resources to support adult learners working towards digital literacy. 

The learning resources (Northstar Online Learning and the Northstar Curricula) were written to support adult learners at a mid-level English reading comprehension ability or higher; this reading ability is also required to complete the assessments. The curriculum will support adult English language learners at an intermediate level, CASAS reading level 211 or higher.  

ESL teachers have successfully adapted the curriculum by scaffolding the materials down to beginning/high beginning ESL level learners. 

For each lesson plan, digital literacy vocabulary words are identified to help teachers support learners' understanding of the skill being taught. Planning to pre-teach that vocabulary is one way to support learners at a lower level. Another idea is to break the lessons into parts, providing a slower pace of instruction. I would also recommend having learners complete the corresponding Northstar Online Learning modules to reinforce concepts and vocabulary. 

Scaffolded instruction of the standards for beginning ESL learners may help them show their learning on the Northstar Assessments. We also recommend giving learners the assessment as a pre-test prior to instruction and then again as a post-test after instruction. In general, teachers have found that beginning level ESL learners and higher show gains on the assessment after instruction. 

Each Northstar Assessment also features audio and text of all questions, which can be helpful for some learners. 

For learners with low print literacy I would recommend ESL classes first, which I imagine will also be building digital literacy skills due to remote learning. In these classes, learners could continue to build their language skills before taking Northstar classes and assessments.  

Finally, in the Northstar Admin portal under “Other Resources” Northstar has developed some screeners provided as a way to determine whether low-literacy individuals have a level of computer skills needed to take the Northstar assessments in a meaningful manner. If individuals have very low skills, it is best to provide some instruction prior to having them take the assessments so they do not become overly frustrated by attempting to complete assessments far above their skill and/or language level. There are two versions of the screener, one for large group screening and one for one-to-one screening. The use of these screeners is not required, but recommended for use with low skills.

Please reach out if we can answer any more questions. Thank you! -Leah support@digitalliteracyassessment.org

 

Hello Sara,  

I appreciate your search for good resources to assess a learner’s digital literacy skills!

I am familiar with Northstar Digital Literacy assessment and modules and have found the program helpful for higher level ELLs, but a bit too advanced for most of my beginning and intermediate learners. Students get the most out of the program when we first study the vocabulary. Even with the help of captions, my students have commented the speaker in the audio articulates well but speaks very quickly. In my experience, it has worked best for higher-level ELLs who have some experience using a computer or laptop, but who may benefit from focused lessons and vocabulary.   

I don’t use a formal assessment to understand a learner’s digital literacy but take a survey at the start of the term to determine a learner’s experience with technology. For example, Yes/No/Maybe questions include something like: Do you have a cell phone? Computer/laptop at home? Can you use a keyboard? Do you use the Internet? Why? Do you want to learn more about computers? So far, with the help of classmates, students have been able to understand the survey questions and why I want to know.

Good luck with your task to find an appropriate assessment. I hope you will share your findings here!

Erin Walshkirkman

Thanks for sharing. Erin! A survey is a good idea and similar to where my thoughts have been leaning lately around more beginner students. Would you be willing to share the survey you use with your beginning level learners? Or are the questions above mainly the ones you use?

 

Posted in the ELA Group by Liz Hadley, copied here by David J. Rosen, Moderator Integrating Technology

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Have you seen this resource? https://www.digitallearn.org/

It is text and video-based (with on-screen CC). The only downside is the free version does not let students create an account to save their progress. However, I started a video, navigated away from it briefly, and when I came back, I was asked if I wanted to resume where I had left off. I even closed my browser tab and was allowed to resume, but I don't know if this works if the computer is logged out/shut down. There are worksheets the teacher or student can print for homework, and there are certificates of completion for the different units.

-Liz

Hello Liz and others,

It may be worth pointing out that Northstar is both an assessment and an aligned curriculum. Originally developed as a digital literacy assessment, for programs that subscribe there is also an aligned digital literacy curriculum as well as training for assessors, the ability to award certificates for those who complete the assessment modules, and perhaps more.

There are many free curricula that can be used to help students prepare for the assessment modules and, as far as I know, the individual Northstar student assessment modules (without training for assessors and certificates) are still free.  Digital Learn is certainly one widely-used free curriculum. Another is GCF Learn Free,  and perhaps there are others that teachers have found suitable.

What do other teachers here like about any of these particular digital literacy curriculum options (Northstar, Digital Learn, GCF Learn Free, or others)?

David J. Rosen, Moderator

LINCS CoP Integrating Technology group

Has anyone used or know anyone who is using Learning.com's Digital Literacy assessment: https://www.learning.com/dla/? 

I'm intrigued by this since it's supposed to be aligned to ISTE standards (which is what the state I am working uses), but it seems to perhaps be geared to K-12 as well as gives very little information about what the assessment actually covers on the website.

 

Any info folks have about this would be helpful!

 

Thanks, Sara