Updates to Distance Learning Basics and Northstar Foundations Courses

Your Statewide Digital & Distance Learning Team has been hard at work this summer, updating our two core PD courses in Canvas. Keep reading for a sneak peek, and find all of the Minnesota Adult Education Canvas courses here.

Distance Learning Basics

Distance Learning Basics for Minnesota Adult Education is the required training for all staff involved with distance learning. (See the Minnesota Adult Education Staff Training Policy here for more information about training requirements.)

In the previous version of this course (offered 2021-2026), all staff needed to complete Module 5. Teachers and supervisors also needed to complete Modules 1-4. These modules were developed by World Education to support adult educators’ rapid pivot to online teaching in 2020-2021. Although these modules were exceptionally helpful at the time (and even featured examples from some of our beloved Minnesota colleagues), they have become outdated and were never intended to meet the specific needs of all Minnesota practitioners.

The new version of the course has been streamlined and intentionally designed to support Minnesota staff in a wide variety of teaching contexts: fully in-person, fully online, HyFlex, one-room schoolhouse/multilevel classrooms, jail and correctional facilities, etc. The requirements are simpler:

• Everyone completes Module 1 (1.5 CEUs).
• Teachers and supervisors continue to complete Modules 2-4 (1 CEU each, for a total of 4.5 CEUs for the entire course).
• No one is required to submit a notes document! All practice and assessment activities are embedded in the Canvas course.
• TVM Certification will be a completely separate course, available by the end of August 2026. Contact the DL Helpdesk with questions about TVM Certification.

   

  
  Northstar Foundations

  Northstar Digital Literacy Foundations is a recommended course for all teachers, as well as for other staff and volunteers interested in supporting learners’ development of digital literacy skills. The course provides an overview of the Northstar standards, helps you understand how they connect to other Minnesota Adult Education content standards, and provides support for integrating digital literacy into any class.

  Most of the course content and its basic format remain the same; however, the course now highlights several new curricula and other resources that have been released in the four years since this course was created. These include:

  -The Digital Access and Resilience in Texas (DART) curriculum, which integrates beginning English language learning with foundational digital skills.
  
  -The English Learner Digital Essential Skills (ELDES) curriculum, which was designed for intermediate English language learners and native English speakers with no prior exposure to computers. ELDES is available in English, Spanish, and Somali. It includes professionally produced Somali-language video lessons on YouTube.
  
  –Northstar Digital Literacy Routines for ESL Classrooms. These are customizable Google Slides routines that are suitable for beginning or intermediate ESL classes.

  -The BRIDGES Digital Resilience Toolkit, an extensive resource that includes guiding questions, skills checklists and “I Can” statements for goal-setting, empowering practices, and vocabulary and tool lists across ten digital skill domains.

  A final note about Canvas accounts

  Canvas suffered a security breach earlier this year. As a result, new users are currently unable to create accounts. If you have never had an account for the Minnesota Adult Education Canvas instance, please email the DL Helpdesk so we can create an account for you. If you let us know which course(s) you want to take, we can also send you a course invitation.

  If you have previously taken a course in the Minnesota Adult Education Canvas instance and you remember the email address that you used, you can reset your Canvas password yourself by clicking the “Forgot password?” link on the Canvas login page.

  We hope these courses support you and, in turn, your learners. We welcome feedback and questions at [email protected].