What is this research about?

The COVID-19 pandemic has intensified pre-existing inequities in Canadian society and has highlighted the need for more granular data about the social impacts of COVID-19. This release provided an overview of discrimination experienced by Canadians over the course of the pandemic, as well as the relationship between experiences of discrimination and various measures of trust and sense of belonging.

What did the researchers find?

"The new crowdsourcing initiative on experiences of discrimination took place against a backdrop of difficulties and challenges faced by several groups of Canadians over the course of the pandemic. This often reflected pre-existing structural inequities and vulnerabilities that these groups were facing prior to the pandemic. Many of these difficulties have been documented in Statistics Canada studies...

Statistics Canada provided Canadians with an opportunity to share their experiences of discrimination via a new crowdsourcing initiative. Although the results cannot be generalized to the overall population, over one-quarter of participants reported experiencing discrimination or being treated unfairly over the course of the pandemic. Results also indicate that several groups of participants, including gender diverse participants, Chinese, Korean, Southeast Asian and Black participants, and Indigenous women were among those who were much more likely to report having experienced discrimination or been treated unfairly during the pandemic. Furthermore, the results suggest that there is a significant association between experiences of discrimination and other key social indicators, such as trust in institutions."

What is this research about?

The Alberta Nonprofit Data Strategy was launched in 2018 to enhance the nonprofit and voluntary sector’s use of data. This project interviewed informants about the current state of data capacity, data sharing, and the access and use of open data in the nonprofit and voluntary sector, and what steps were required at organization and sector levels to appropriately meet the needs of the sector. Informants also considered how a data hub could support the sector’s use of data.

What did the researchers find?

"From November 2019 to March 2020, each task team engaged the nonprofit sector and developed recommendations for action. The Data Hub Task Team researched national and international data platforms, and interviewed data hub moderators to develop a data hub model to best meet the needs of the Alberta nonprofit sector. The Newcomer Task Team scanned for current data initiatives in the Immigrant and Refugee sector, and the nonprofit sector more broadly in Alberta to document learnings from exemplars and assess gaps. The Government of Alberta (GoA) Data Task Team surveyed the nonprofit sector to better understand what the sector considered as high‐value data, and matched those responses with data on the GoA Open Portal.

Eight projects of varying scale were developed through the work of Task Teams and key informant suggestions. Projects are intentionally designed to be developed further and launched by collaboratives and organizations big and small within this sector‐wide effort. Leveraging existing projects and identifying additional funding opportunities are critical to the implementation of these projects as well. The projects proposed (see below) target data capacity building, data sharing, nonprofit organization data, Government of Alberta data, and the development of an Alberta Nonprofit Data Hub."

What is this research about?

This guide is intended to support those in charities and other social sector organizations to navigate the landscape of digital maturity frameworks and diagnostic tools.

What did the researchers find?

Researchers outline what you need to know about digital maturity assessment tools. It also recommends 8 key frameworks that are worth exploring and comparing, depending on your areas of interest and your organizations’ size. It gives an overview of how they work and what they include so that you can determine which are most relevant and helpful to you.

These recommendations are based on research by Think Social Tech, Innovation Unboxed and CAST in April - July 2019. This involved a comprehensive mapping exercise of digital maturity
frameworks, followed by a thematic analysis of the contents of the 50 unique frameworks they found. This process enabled them to identify which tools are well designed, comprehensive, targeted at specific audiences or needs (such as small or large charities) or evidence based.

Additional resources:

Digital Maturity Mapping in the Charity Sector - additional background info

Digital maturity in the charity sector - infographic

[pdf-embedder url="https://km4s.ca/wp-content/uploads/Digital-maturity-inthe-charity-sector.pdf" title="Digital maturity in the charity sector - infographic"]

 

What is this research about?

This report presents the background, procedures, main findings, and implications of the research project “Researching the Effects of Blended Learning in LINC” conducted by the LearnIT2Teach Project during September 2017 – June 2018. The purpose of the research project was to examine the effects of blended learning for learning and teaching in LINC (Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada), the language and settlement program for immigrants funded by Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).

What did the researchers find?

Overall "students and teachers in this school board program indicated a high level of engagement with blended learning plus support and advocacy for the approach. The benefits they highlighted included accessibility to English language learning beyond the classroom. But above and beyond that, they demonstrated commitment to learning through this approach as a means to authentic learning of language, technology, and settlement or “life” skills, as well as the benefits of autonomy and flexibility which enhanced participation. There were notable benefits for curriculum, teaching, and program development, as well improvements in the implementation of PBLA and LINC activities."

Research findings are organized into the following sections:

• Effects of blended learning for learners and learning
• Preparation for further studies, independent learning, and intergenerational effects
• Access to technology and technology use for learning
• Effects for English language learning and development
• Benefits of blended learning for students
• Benefits of online activities and EduLINC
• Benefits of face-to-face class time
• Effects of blended learning for learners’ self-efficacy and knowledge for technology use
• Effects of blended learning for teachers, teaching, and LINC
• Attendance, participation and engagement, and retention
• Student autonomy, engagement and motivation, and learning connections beyond the classroom
• Enhanced use of technology, access to knowledge/information, and integration of skills
• Challenges

What is this research about?

To better understand the opportunities and challenges of blended learning uptake in LINC programs, the LearnIT2teach project conducted two surveys of LINC administrators and instructors (2012 and 2016-17) focused on the implementation of learning technologies in LINC programs undertaken in Ontario and across Canada.

What did the researchers find?

High level findings include:

• satisfaction rates above 90% by teachers who have participated in the training
• The biggest obstacles to blended learning uptake continue to be lack of paid release time for teacher training, or higher compensation for teachers who implement blended or online learning, and the lack of local technology infrastructure locally in many SPOs responsible for frontline program delivery
• Sector professionals have been surveyed several times by the LearnIT2teach Project and have reported the following, with implications for the project (Fahy, Sturm, McBride, & Edgar, 2016):
  • More teachers would take PD training if their time in PD was paid.
  • Unionized teachers tend to be reluctant to engage in unpaid PD. Most of the interviewees who use LearnIT2teach courseware are not unionized.
  • Systems are going backwards financially, with more and more demands on teachers. Teachers are willing to move with the times, but it’s hard when there are obstacles at every turn.
  • The reality of being a teacher in other systems is that effort is recognized with moving up a pay scale. For language teachers, there often is no recognition.
  • Initial input of time to create course material is large. Instructors lack free time.
• There were also the familiar reports about lack of working equipment, support, and resources for PD and innovation. These reports concerned language labs (which were often shared among a large number of classes) and in-classroom computers (which were often not properly supported, were not working, did not have broadband access, or were too few in number to have an impact).

What is this research about?

This report provides an evaluation of Learning Technology and Innovation Leadership courses delivered between 2015 and 2017.

What did the researchers find?

The researcher outlines eight evaluation standards based on the learner outcomes:

1. Development of personal leadership skills to support learning technology innovation in an SLT program - A better developed local plan should be a requirement in future iterations of the courses.
2. Understanding of the roles that each stakeholder (funders, managers, teachers and learners) play in successful learning technology integration - participants in the course are encouraged to share experiences and lessons in building innovation partnerships with funder(s).
3. Understanding of the innovation process and the foundations of Innovations Theory - The recommendation in Standard 2 to continue to support ‘alumni’ intercommunication through webinars, surveys and discussion boards to enhance understanding and skill to support the innovation process also applies to this standard.
4. Increased awareness of theory and evidence which supports better learning technology practices in the SLT sector - To expand on the case for learning technology presented in the course, more evidence is required.
5. Understanding of core persuasion and leadership strategies to support learning technology innovation within the participant’s organization - For greater certainty under this standard and others, a scale that encouraged participants to rate and comment for each reading, podcast or video in the course would provide additional data to assess the impact of the curricula.
6. Awareness of the role program evaluation and effective communication can play in supporting local learning technology innovation - Beginning the evaluation discussion earlier in the course and threading it through earlier units is a recommendation.
7. Articulation of a plan for local learning technology innovation - a more structured capstone assignment requiring development of the broad elements of a local plan for blended learning technology innovation should be a requirement of future iterations of the course.
8. Ongoing engagement in an online community of settlement language training practitioners - The project should encourage all alumni to engage in an ongoing Community of Practice by creating further opportunities to share goals, plans, challenges, barriers and opportunities for blended learning innovation beyond the time frame of the online course.

What is this research about?

This is the evaluation report on the LearnIT2teach project to 31 March 2016. It reflects the experience of the project to March 2016, and the central role that evaluation plays in guiding  development of the project’s products and assessing its impact on Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC) programs funded by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada  (IRCC) in Ontario and other Provinces.

What did the researchers find?

The evaluation demonstrates that teachers understand the benefits of implementing blended learning and the Edulinc.org LINC learner courseware.

Researchers found that teachers don’t lack motivation, but many experience barriers to implementation in their workplaces. Researchers suggest that the necessary pre-conditions for individual learning technology innovation are administrative support, technical support, and access to technology. They found that availability of these three conditions varied widely from service provider to service provider.

As well: "Teachers want encouragement for professional development in the form of release time for participation, and would be encouraged by higher compensation for those who complete PD stages, or implement innovative teaching techniques. Innovation with learning technology must be treated as important by managers if teachers are to buy in. In spite of challenges in their programs,  instructors are progressing through the LearnIT2teach training at a good pace, and with good uptake of the further training stages."

What is this research about?

The purpose of this study was to examine how the distribution of resources within and outside an Enhanced Language Training Program (ELT) affected a group of newcomers’ access to Internet literacy development; and to discuss ensuing pedagogical and curricular implications for the ELT Program.

What did the researchers find?

Key findings:

The distribution of resources affected access four ways:

• resources affected multiple types of access,
• the effect of resource distribution on access was both cumulative and successive,
• distribution of resources could either facilitate or impede access, and
• Internet literacy development could potentially increase or decrease the resources.

The findings resulted in implications for the ELT program and teaching:

• The teacher played a vital role for the students in this study. This suggests that the teacher selection and preparation for these ELT programs and curriculum design is crucial to support learners and teaching Internet literacy practices and skills.
• Language barriers and the use of precise terminology made online searching difficult for many students in this study. Teachers in the class need to be aware of how language can impede on Internet literacy, and should show students how they can facilitate easier searches with their knowledge of English.
• The safety and security of websites was a cause for concern for participants in this study.
  When teaching, the instructor should be more explicit about the kinds of websites to avoid, and help students discern what sites are considered safe.
• The teacher may want to consider integrating the use of social network in class and being part of that network. This may mean participating on social networks, and demonstrating to students how to use networks appropriately and professionally.
• The teacher of the ELT course should have adequate training in dealing with Internet literacy issues.

What is this research about?

The Digital Skills Survey provides insights on the digital health of the Canadian charitable sector. In February, 2021, CanadaHelps conducted an online survey of approximately 1,400 charities. 1,114 were from CanadaHelps’ database (users of CanadaHelps’ software) and 328 other charities from a list obtained from Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) (charities with no relationship to CanadaHelps).

What did the researchers find?

In our increasingly digital world, the study shows charities are ill-prepared to respond to the digital expectations of Canadians. They lack both the funding and skills necessary to maintain relevancy and raise needed funds. Highlighting the profound implications for the sustainability and impact of the sector, the report calls for investment by funders and governments.

Specific findings:

• Smaller Charities Lag in Digital Adoption
• Charities have Digital Ambitions
• The Need for Digital Transformation is Urgent
• Prioritizing Digital is Hard
• There is a Massive Skill Gap
• Funding is a Major Obstacle
• There is a Long Way To Go and Charities Want Support