Tools and platforms that can help you deliver actual online courses (such as Learning Management Systems) as well as interactive tools to use during online courses.
Mentimeter is a tool you can use to add questions, polls, quizzes, slides, images, gifs and more to presentations, webinars, and other live online meetings.
Current known uses in the sector
Mentimeter is a commonly used engagement tool in webinars and courses with Newcomers.
Mentimeter can be used in Citizenship Preparation, Community Connections, Employment-related, Information and Orientation, Library Settlement Partnership, Settlement Workers in Schools as a tool to engage with Newcomers visually, brainstorm ideas, capture Newcomer feedback, ideas, insights, suggestions, comprehension, etc.
Video overview
Pricing
Mentimeter has a free plan that allows you to create up to 2 question slides and 5 quiz slides. Additional paid plans have more features.
Ease of use & Accessibility
After a slight learning curve, Mentimeter is easy to use and intuitive to include in your presentations and live sessions.
Mobile friendly
It is mobile friendly for participants to use.
Privacy/security features, including data security and message encryption
According to the Common Sense Media Privacy Evaluation for Mentimeter, “a small amount of personal information is collected, but it is not sold and it is only collected and stored as is necessary to run the service; behavioral advertising is used. The terms state, in exhaustive detail, exactly what types of security are used, from computer security to human resource security, including encryption; those who use the service are notified in the case of a data breach.”
Kahoot is a free participant-response tool for administering quizzes, facilitating discussions, and collecting survey data. It is a game-based tool you can use in real time. Questions are shared with participants as they answer the questions with their smartphone, tablet, or computer. The idea is to create a a social, fun and game-like environment. Kahoot allows for the design of multiple-choice quizzes as well as polls and surveys that populate on-the-spot data. Quiz questions and polls can be used to stimulate quick decisions as well as whole-class discussion.
Current known uses in the sector
Generally used in live video conference (eg. Zoom) settings to create additional engagement with participants.
Used to generate anonymous feedback.
Kahoot can be used in Citizenship Preparation, Community Connections, Employment-related, Information and Orientation, Library Settlement Partnership, Settlement Workers in Schools, Pre-Arrival as a tool to engage with Newcomers visually, brainstorm ideas, capture Newcomer feedback, ideas, insights, suggestions, comprehension, etc.
“The terms of Kahoot! state they use reasonable organizational, technical, and administrative measures to protect users’ personal information.”
“Kahoot! may share a user’s data with third-party service providers to support its services and if a user participates, data may be shared with sponsors of sweepstakes, contests and other similar third-party marketing promotions.”
“Kahoot! collects personally identifiable information and other automatically collected usage information through its services and may receive a user’s personal information from other sources, such as public databases, joint marketing partners, and other third parties. Kahoot! does not collect any personal information from a person who merely plays a Kahoot, except if a user participates in a Kahoot! which is hosted using the Player Identifier feature.”
Multilingual capabilities
The Kahoot app and platform are translated into English, Spanish, French, Brazilian Portuguese, German, Italian, Japanese, Dutch, Turkish, Polish, Norwegian, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, and Arabic.
Thinkific can be used in Citizenship Preparation, Community Connections, Employment-related, Information and Orientation, Library Settlement Partnership, Settlement Workers in Schools as a tool to create online courses, and engage with Newcomers visually, brainstorm ideas, capture Newcomer feedback, ideas, insights, suggestions, comprehension, etc.
Canvas is a Learning Management System (LMS) created specifically for education institutions.
Current known uses in the sector
Canvas can be used in Citizenship Preparation, Community Connections, Employment-related, Information and Orientation, Library Settlement Partnership, Settlement Workers in Schools as a tool to create online courses, engage with Newcomers visually, brainstorm ideas, capture Newcomer feedback, ideas, insights, suggestions, comprehension, etc.
Google Classroom is a simple Learning Management System (LMS) designed to help students and teachers communicate, collaborate, organize and manage assignments, go paperless.
This is the only application that Google has developed specifically for students and teachers, and they want it to be your go-to assignment manager for Google Drive and beyond. Assignment creation and distribution is accomplished through Google Drive while Gmail is used to provide classroom communication. Students can be invited to classrooms through the institution’s database through a private code that can then be added in the student interface or automatically imported from a School Information Management System.
Current known uses in the sector
Use of Google Classroom in language teaching and replicating groups activities digitally. Different Google Classrooms can be created for students to join based on student needs. Students needing additional support or students needing additional challenges can join a Google Classroom class around intervention of a particular topic.
E-Portfolio: As the platform is based on Google Drive for uploading documents and assignments, it can also serve as a digital portfolio for students. Both teachers and students can create folders and documents that can be shared between each other. If the students work in groups, they can create their own shared folder. This way the group’s’ work will be available to all the members of the group, even if one or more are absent. As everything happens in the cloud, everything can be done asynchronous.
Create a Discussion on Specific Topic: In Google Classroom, you have a stream that appears by default when you login to your class. This stream can be utilized to collect student opinions by creating discussion topics and new posts.
Student collaboration on writing projects: Google Classroom doesn’t only support using e-portfolios, but with the power of Google Docs, the students can also work together in new ways on Google Docs.
Video overview
Pricing
Free with a Google Account.
Service Context and activities
Google Classroom can be used in Citizenship Preparation, Community Connections, Employment-related, Information and Orientation, Library Settlement Partnership, Settlement Workers in Schools as a tool to engage with Newcomers visually, brainstorm ideas, capture Newcomer feedback, ideas, insights, suggestions, comprehension, etc.
Make sure you do not use a personal Google account. Your organization should have an account, or you should create a separate account that is specific and only for work-related Jamboards.
Ease of use & Accessibility
Quick and convenient set up, easy to log in, easy to receive and turn in assignments. Allows for the use of screen readers for low vision users.
Google Classroom integrates with students’ and teachers’ Google Calendars. Each class created with Google Classroom creates a separate folder in the respective Google service where the student can submit work to be graded by a teacher. Communication through Gmail allows teachers to make announcements and ask questions to their students in each of their classes. Teachers can add students directly from the Google Apps directory or can provide a code that can be entered for access to the class by students.
Mobile friendly
Yes, works well on mobile devices, including smartphones.Google classroom Mobile app works with VoiceOver on iOS and TalkBack on Android.
Privacy/security features (including data security and message encryption)
When creating a Google account, a valid name, email address, username, and password are required. It is also optional to provide a phone number to recover your account if the password is lost. Upon creation of your account, Google closely tracks your searches, bookmarks, and location services, among other data. These underlying data collection practices and Google’s sharing of your information with third parties make the use of Google tools for personal purposes unsafe.
In contrast to Google’s regular services, Google Classroom does not show any ads in its interface for students, faculty, and teachers, and user data is not scanned or used for advertising purposes.
