 All right, so, good morning. Good morning. Wonderful. I'm Will Durden. If you don't know me, I've tried to meet you as you've come in. I'm the Policy Associate in Basic Education for Adults who works with iBest and Pathway Development and it's my pleasure that I get to work with Idea as part of that as well. I do have a handful of announcements for you, so before we really get rolling, I'm just going to give you some announcements. But first of all, I want to welcome all of the states that are in the room today. It probably comes as a little surprise that we've got some folks from Washington State in the room. Yes, Washington State. So maybe the loudest, but there's other mighty states here as well. So I think I've got California in the room. Awesome. California. I believe I've got some Oregon in the room. Yep. Sounds like Oregon. Yep, we're here. That's great. Alabama. Alabama in the room. Alabama spread out even. Alabama's everywhere. Fantastic. I think we've got some Kansas in the room. The later states know to prepare. They're like, all right, they're going to say our name. We're going to be loud. Illinois. All right. Props to Illinois. And did I miss a state? Who else is here? Did I get them all? Wonderful. Great. So a few more announcements. First of all, everybody received or was supposed to receive an email invitation, a course invitation to get into the Canvas course for this conference for today and tomorrow. If you didn't receive the invitation, never saw it in your inbox, didn't see it in your junk folder, wherever, you'll want to check in with us. You won't need it for right now. You won't need it until the afternoon if you're in the faculty session. So there is a little bit of time. But talk to me or any of the faculty trainers that will be pointed out to you later or Jody Ruback, who I'll also introduce in a moment, and we can help you get into Canvas for the afternoon session. On the note of computer use, for this morning, from now through lunch, you don't need your computer at all for it. So if you're thinking about maybe wanting to conserve battery, maybe making sure that you're able to give full attention to the materials, you might want to just pop that computer closed. Speaking of battery life, we do have charging station to where I'm pointing on my right in the back. So if you need to juice up a little bit, you can do that over there. As well as once you get to the breakout sessions in the afternoon, the faculty sessions, those breakout rooms have chargers actually at each of the tables. And so you'll be able to stay plugged in. So for those of you with state-issued laptops like myself with about a one and a half hour battery life, those are very handy. If you have a surface or an iPad, you're probably doing pretty good. A few other things you do, you probably did notice that this is being videotaped. This is actually our seventh regional national conference that we've done with IDEA. And this is the last one that we're doing through our collaboration with the Gates Foundation. As a result of that, we're filming this so that we can take portions of this conference to put on our website so that folks will have access to it in perpetuity. So you hopefully signed a release form. If not, we'll make sure to get that from you. We do have a couple tables designated for anybody who does not wish to be filmed. Most of the filming is really going to be front and center. So most of you seated really should not have any issues with that. But please check with me or one of the other folks with the conference if you have any questions or concerns about the video footage. I think that's most of my announcements. Conference Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi is always important. If you need to get onto Wi-Fi, it's Marriott Conference. That's the network that you're looking for. And the password, and there are some sheets of paper with this around the room, is IDEA, all caps, no hyphen between the I and the D, just IDEA-18. IDEA-18. That's your password to get onto the network. Wi-Fi. OK. Furthermore, before we get too far into this, I want to remind everyone that all of the presentations and all of the training resources for the next two days are located at the link you see listed on this slide. I realize you can't magically click that link. But once you get into the Canvas course and you see all of that information, you'll find that this is located there as well. All registered participants did receive an email inviting them to the course. Again, one more time, if you didn't receive that invitation, please see a member of the training team. OK. We have a few folks that we want to acknowledge. Of course, we want to acknowledge our work with the Gates Foundation and their generosity in assisting us to provide these conferences. These began in, I want to say, August of last year. We started in California. In fact, we've got Jason, who was at our very first session in California. And he's back for more with some other people that he's brought. So Jason's going to see the perfected final product after seven conferences, right? So we did California at San Diego. Then we went to Texas and Houston. And then we went to Georgia, a little bit north of Atlanta. And then we were in New York, I think, in Albany or just outside of Albany. Those were our original four. And in fact, we had some of our partner states. We've had Alabama at some of those. We've had Kansas at some of those. And then those were so successful that we were able to offer three additional ones. So we just got off of a round of doing one in Denver and then doing one outside of Chicago. And now here we are just outside of Seattle for the final round. So welcome, everybody. It's great to be here. We have some faculty trainers who have been with IDEA throughout different stages of its development and then have been working with us to really provide these trainings. Really the heart of the training is those faculty sessions and getting in there and working with what IDEA is. So I would like to take a minute to acknowledge those trainers and thank them for the work that they've done and will continue to do. We have Adria Katka from North Seattle College here. Yeah, sure. Round of applause for Adria. We have Les Rivera from Clark College here. We have Danica Garcia who worked with IDEA at Columbia Basin College and now is at Washington State University. Danica? Danica. We have Shannon Potter with Olympic College and we have Ursula Vollweiler with Walla Walla Community College. In addition to that, I would like to thank any faculty members who are in the room who are in Washington State are not one of our IDEA trainers today but have worked with the IDEA curriculum either from the pilots or now teaching it currently. Washington State faculty maybe raise your hand or just give us a nod and we'll give you a round of applause. An extra special thanks also specifically to faculty who did work through the initial pilot and the phases of IDEA. We'll talk about that more. They really contributed through this continuous improvement feedback cycle to what it is that you see today, the finished IDEA product. And so I just want to thank those IDEA faculty who really worked through those development stages in the early days. Thank you very much. Yeah. Finally, all of that work had to get coordinated and managed and all of those deadlines and keeping people on track and problem solving and all of those things. And so we want to take a final minute to acknowledge the kind of expert genius mastermind at the state who did that work and that's Jodi Rubach. And so thanks to Jodi who is really that coordinating point person to bring it all together and to make it what it is. So Jodi, along with the key faculty that we've already thanked in this state, have really accomplished any more than we could have imagined. So we're so thankful to them for the work that we did. All right. And Christy Louder. Christy Louder, you received emails from Christy. She helped you out at the registration table. And thank you so much, Christy, for your ongoing work with IDEA as well. OK. So what's going to happen now is I'm going to give you some information about IDEA to really set the stage for the day. I'm going to begin by giving you some context and then I'm going to be fitting IDEA into a pathways approach. So for the first few minutes or so that I'm going to be speaking with you, you're not going to necessarily hear a lot about English language instruction and you might say, wait, I thought this was about teaching English to speakers of other languages. And it is. But I want to give you the pathways approach that we fit that in. So I'm going to give you a little bit of context to start off. And I'm going to take you back to the Great Recession. What a terrible name for a recession. But I'm going to take you back to the Great Recession that happened in those kind of 2010, 2011 years. In that recession, English language acquisition programming in Washington state was cut in some of our colleges by 50%. With the majority of those cuts being to our lowest three levels. Those beginning English language acquisition levels. In fact, two of our programs in state eliminated levels one through three programming for English language learners completely. At that time in our state, our lowest three levels of English language learners were the students that generated the fewest performance points and made the fewest transitions to post-secondary programming. As a result, they were the students targeted for programming reduction and elimination. To avoid future cuts, we had to find ways to prove that our English language acquisition students can become the answer to our state's workforce needs in the 21st century. In Washington as well as in many states across the nation, we know that these individuals are the critical link to meeting both our national and state calls to action to dramatically increase high school and college completion rates. And our English language acquisition students are the key to renewed success for our nation's workforce and the global economy. After all, our immigrant population in Washington state makes up 52% of all adult education students. And they are the fastest growing population in our state. Idea has become a key innovation in meeting our state's workforce needs and bringing equity to the students we serve. Primary among workforce challenges in Washington state are some facts. Currently, nearly 75% of available jobs in Washington state require at least a post-secondary credential. Washington's needs for trained employees with college credentials will increase by almost 60% by 2030. In that same period, the population will grow by only 10%. What that means is that over the next 20 years, there won't be enough high school graduates to fill the gap in our workforce. Washington state will need to fill the gap with our immigrant, out-of-school youth, and working age adults, our students. And because of this, English language acquisition programming has become more important than ever. Idea is greatly boosting performance outcomes across the system when compared to nearly every other area. Our Idea work is also critical in meeting our governor and state's roadmap attainment goals. Those goals, very ambitious goals, are that by 2023, all adults in Washington ages 25 through 44 will have a high school diploma or equivalent. And at least 70% of Washington adults, ages 25 through 44, will have a post-secondary credential. As those in basic skills know, the most significant change to basic education under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act of 2014 is the new definition. Where in the past, basic education was defined as providing life skills. The term adult education now means academic instruction, providing academic instruction in education services that begin below the post-secondary level and that increase an individual's ability to do some key things. A, it looks pretty familiar to many of us, read, write, and speak English, and perform mathematics and other activities necessary for the attainment of a secondary school diploma or its recognized equivalent. But also, B, transition to post-secondary education and training, and C, obtain employment. In addition to this new definition under WIOA, the major guiding changes for basic education, Title II, require the bullet points you see listed on the slide. Requires the development and implementation of effective and accessible college and career pathways. Requires that basic education aligns to the K-12 standards and no longer get students to 10th grade competency levels but provides them with the skills to be college ready. It requires employability skills be taught in every class at every level. It includes math, reading, listening, and speaking strategies to be taught at all levels for both adult basic education and English language learners. And it expands the provision for technology. Idea was created with these changes in mind. And it's become a critical foundation of both our basic skills pathway and our guided pathways work across the entire system. So that's a little bit of the national perspective with the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act and how it informs the work we do in Washington State but really in all states across the nation, including our friends from other states here today. So in our system level, now coming back to the Washington State perspective and that pathways approach that I mentioned to you, in our system level basic education for adults pathway model, students in levels one through three adult basic education in English language acquisition, take on ramps or contextualized instruction to college level programming is outlined in the first arrow on this slide. Idea is our critical contextualized instruction answer for English language acquisition programming along with other contextualized instruction options for our students in those first three levels. When students are ready, usually English language acquisition levels four or five, they can move into high school diploma competency-based programming such as our high school 21 plus programming or if they are ready and eligible, they can move into quarter one of I-BEST, our Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training Programming with tuition funded by WorkFirst, BFET, Worker Retraining, Title One Funds, Opportunity Grant Funds, even if they don't have a high school diploma or GED. This allows eligible students to earn the six college level credits needed to transition onto ability to benefit and full federal financial aid and our state need grant in their second quarter of I-BEST or other college pathways. Then in their second quarter in I-BEST, once they have moved onto federal financial aid with ability to benefit, they can continue to access opportunity grants and or state need grant funding to get them all the way to their two-year degree. Upon receiving a two-year degree in Washington State, students can merely check a box and receive their high school diploma at the same time. They can then use those same funding sources to transfer into one of our applied baccalaureate degrees in our community and technical college system or to a four-year university if they choose. These pathway contextualized instruction on-ramp programs were developed to create a truly comprehensive pathway as the foundation to each meta-major or broad industry sector and our guided pathways initiative to include even our beginning level students. So Washington State is a guided pathways state. In our system level guided pathways model, basic skills is seen as the foundation of the system level guided pathways initiative that is being implemented in all mission areas of the colleges in our state. When a student tests into basic skills, they are assessed for their skill levels and whether or not a high school credential is needed. Goals, interests, and a meta-major are identified and a navigator is assigned. Funding is then identified at that same time and an educational plan is created. Our earliest English language acquisition and basic skills learners are placed in foundational contextualized instruction on-ramps that contextualize college and career readiness to the different meta-majors available at the college. Idea functions as a general academic preparation for all meta-majors. When students are ready, they move into the college level certificate or degree program within that meta-major. IBEST is offered as a core of each meta-major at this level providing the added academic and navigational support that students need to be successful. This is the plan, this is aspirational, this is what we're working toward in our college system. Students in need of a high school credential can be co-enrolled for dual credit in our high school 21 plus competency-based high school completion program or they receive their high school diploma upon completion of their two-year degree. For idea students who lack documentation, they can move into our competency high school diploma program, high school 21 plus. Under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, WIOA, our work in adult education is no longer about creating a series of best practices or what we used to think of as EL civics projects. It's rather about creating guided pathways that ensure that all of our English language acquisition students acquire the qualifications needed to secure living wage work and a living wage career and live a life of contribution to their communities. When we meet with English language acquisition instructors across the nation, we're often asked, so what about life skills like recipe reading or going to the doctor? Because of our work and idea, our message has changed dramatically in the last four years. We used to say, well, those are important and integrated with what we're doing. But now we say, and I'm gonna say it twice, now we say that integrated contextualized outcomes-based instruction in technology, academics, and employability skills are the 21st century life skills no matter what your age or goal. Integrated contextualized outcomes-based instruction in technology, academics, and employability skills are the 21st century life skills no matter what your age or goal. Our work with idea, as I've mentioned, is bringing English language acquisition instruction into the 21st century. The idea initiative in Washington has allowed us to draw on the genius in the field to develop, test, and implement curriculum in processes for advancing our English language acquisition students into a living wage career pathway that leads to sustainable employment. Our goal in conducting this conference and the trainings that are part of that conference, this conference, is to hopefully provide other states and individual programs with programming that might be a catalyst or support to the ELA transformations already happening within your state. Now we have the chance to work together to truly transform the way that English language acquisition instruction is delivered not only here, but across the nation. And the entire country is lucky to have the collective genius of all of you in this room from all of our great partner states to think about and plan how your programs can adopt these ELA transformations and what those can look like in your state and at your institutions. So before moving into an overview of the idea curriculum which we will get to and how it was created, let's hear from some of our colleges who have implemented idea across their ELA curriculum and their students. We have students that come into the program with little to no academic training. Some students have never touched a computer before in their life. They don't even know to turn it on. When I was my country, I didn't get this opportunity to get a computer here. I can get that opportunity. Project Idea began out of a collaboration with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The mission of the Idea program is to engage students in technology in order to accelerate their learning so they can get the certificates and degrees needed to move into living wage jobs. I want to study medical nursing and helping people. The Project Idea curriculum is unlike any ESL textbook that we have seen before. So we have topics like cross-cultural communication, effective presentations, and environmental issues that aren't typical of an ESL textbook. The new curriculum in teaching, this flipped model, establishes a very important shift, removing the focus of knowledge and power from the instructor and shift it to the student. So the dynamic has changed in the sense that students are now empowered. The flipped model of teaching allows students more independence. They have to manage their time to do their work, and then they come to class and practice what they've learned. When I come here, I don't speak any English. My favorite part of the idea curriculum is you can speak in class. You can write, you can listen, and you can go home and practice what you learn in class. So we're seeing self-actualization of learning, and that's a huge marker for students to be able to take ownership of that learning process. Three months after I start the class, for the first time, I can write a test in English. Idea was a three-phase pilot. By the end of the pilot, we had 33 providers participating. By the end of the third year, about 11% of the students had learning gains that were above that of students in traditional ESL classes. And on standardized tests, students were 12% higher, and the growth continues. The interesting dynamics in the model is that students are able to reinforce the curriculum by bringing in their own experiences. This one student, she would tell me, teacher, I have to go, I have to go. I'm looking for a job after class, and I have to go to my friend's house because my friend helps me to look for jobs online, and then she helps me fill out the online applications. We had job skills and work readiness modules that teach students how to fill out online applications to create resumes online. Once she had those skills, she came to me at the end of class, and she said, I don't have to ask my friend anymore. The other day, I used the Idea laptop to find myself a job, and she gave me back the laptop, and she started working. I made my resume in class, and practiced the real interview after. I write my teacher, oh, I get the job. For me, the Idea program is the excellent program. Students always say it best, right? It's great to hear from them. So I think we're ready to move on to a more detailed overview of project idea. In a nutshell, Idea provides our beginning level English language learners, NRS levels one through three, with a laptop computer and 50% of the instruction online with 24 seven internet access to learning. Idea was developed through a three and a half year collaboration between the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The Idea program targets community college and community-based organization learners in the state's first three NRS levels of English language acquisition courses, and it's aimed to help learners achieve their language goals in tandem with career and college goals. Idea derived its dual approach from the state's Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training, or IBES model, which the US Department of Education recognizes as furthering adult education faster than any other program. The Idea project was piloted in three phases, beginning in January of 2013. In phase one, nine of Washington's Community and Technical Colleges participated. The teams from these colleges designed and piloted 31 open-source contextualized, flipped hybrid instructional modules, get all that, an entire year of curriculum. In phase two, the modules were refined, and 10 additional community and technical colleges joined the project to deliver and provide feedback on the modules along with the nine original colleges. Then during phase three of the pilot, 33 of Washington's Community and Technical Colleges and one community-based organization delivered Idea instruction and provided feedback on the modules. This continued feedback loop between instructional teams and SBCTC, the state board, has allowed for continuous improvement of the teaching model. Because of this feedback loop and continuous revision to materials, we have identified a set of instructional strategies that can be employed with a smaller investment of face-to-face instructional time, resulting in an instructional model easily accessible to others, and a platform on which a greater number of adult English language acquisition students will be able to attain high school diplomas and college and career readiness on an accelerated schedule. While the primary focus of the initial idea pilot was on the creation of curriculum and identifying best practices of technology-enhanced instruction, that would allow more students to be served with less in-class instruction, there were also several other integral pieces that should be noted. These included the laptop computers loaned to students, 24-7 internet access provided via hotspots, and online advising and tutoring. Additionally, the curriculum was developed to be released as an Open Educational Resource, or OER, allowing colleges and community-based organizations in Washington State and around the world to replicate idea. And yes, people use Canvas worldwide. Phase one results. So I wanna give you now the results from the different phases of the pilot. There were three phases in that pilot. The results from the first phase of the pilot were promising beyond anything that was expected. In 2013, nine providers launched the first phase of the pilot and enrolled a total of 408 students. 50% of the idea students made federal NRS-level gains, as compared to only 39% of students in our traditional English language acquisition programs, an 11% increase. 60% of the idea students made what we call significant gains on the COSSES test, a five-point increase, which is our state-level performance measure and accrues funding for the program. That's in comparison to the 51% of students in traditional programming who made significant gains, so there's a 9% increase there. On average, idea students generated two student achievement or performance points. Again, that generates additional funding for the college in Washington State. And let me put that in perspective. Prior to idea, English language learners generated on average only 0.8 performance points per student versus the average of two that we noted in phase one of our pilot. In the second phase of the project, 10 additional providers joined the pilot for a total of 19. Collectively, they enrolled 749 students. 51% of the idea students made federal-level gains with only 42% of our traditional English language learners making gains, a 9% increase. 62% made those significant gains, bringing funding back to their program as compared to a 46% made by traditional students. And on average, they generated 1.8 performance points per student. In phase three, an additional 14 providers joined the pilot for a total of 33. On average, idea students generated 2.3 performance points per student in addition to similar percentage gains with the federal level and the significant gains. As faculty became more adept at teaching in the flipped classroom model, we saw that performance increase. You probably wanted to see that information, there it is. 2016 marked the first year of programming outside of the pilot. In 2016, 20 providers offered idea. Collectively, they enrolled 2049 students. 53% made federal-level gains with 51% of traditional students making gains. That's a 2% increase. 65% made significant gains with 62% of traditional students making gains, a 3% increase. If you've been paying attention, you might say, hey, I was noticing 9% gains, 11% gains. And then post-pilot, you went down to 2% gains. What's up with that? What happened, actually, is that the idea numbers stayed about the same, but the traditional number started to come up. And we think that idea has had an impact on all of our English language instruction. And so we're seeing that impact across all program areas, not just the sections that are offering idea. Okay, so you've seen some of the data and some of the results of what idea looked like throughout the phases of the pilot, as well as our first full-year post-pilot. Now let's take a look at some of the specifications of the program. After the three-year pilot, and then moving into regular programming, we relaxed the program requirements and have allowed providers to offer both full-idea programming as well as a tailored model that we simply call tailored idea. This has allowed both on- and off-campus programs to offer idea to fit their schedules, technology, buildings, and student populations. Both versions employ the flipped classroom delivery model. In full idea, all instruction is designed using the flipped classroom model. In this model, participants engage in 14 to 18 hours or more of instruction per week with at least 50% or seven to nine hours of the instruction delivered online. The online portion of the class is the theory or what in the traditional classroom model might be considered the lecture. This online pre-work is done using the idea instructional modules housed in the Canvas Learning Management System. The pre-work or online portion of full idea can take place outside of class, at home, or any other place that the student is separated from the instructor. This is a true hybrid model. Or it can take place in the classroom or computer lab at the college or community-based organization with the instructor or a technology coach present. This creates a web-enhanced model of instruction. In the full idea model, we require eight or more of the idea modules to be used each 10-week quarter. Providers delivering the full idea must ensure that 80% or more of the instruction is delivered through the use of idea modules. Providers are, of course, allowed to base 100% of instruction on the use of the modules, but 80% is the requirement. In the online portion of full idea, seven to nine hours are spent online in Canvas with each week-long module. As I said earlier, the online work is the theory or lecture, and functions as the preparation for the face-to-face classroom lesson. Later in the presentation, you'll see examples of the online portions of the module. And then in the face-to-face lesson, students spend a minimum of seven to nine hours per each week-long module. So that's full idea. That's what it looked like throughout the pilot and what it looks like today. Tailored idea. In tailored idea, the idea curriculum is used to deliver instruction to participants via flipped, web-enhanced, or hybrid instruction. Participants in tailored idea engage in a minimum of 10 hours of instruction per week and use both the face-to-face and the online components of the idea curriculum. In tailored idea, the online portions, or what you may think of as the pre-work, can take place outside of class at home, or any other place that the student is separated from the instructor and has both computer and internet access. That's the hybrid model. Or it can take place in the classroom or a computer lab at the college or community-based organization with the instructor or a technology coach available. And that's the web-enhanced version. The tailored idea requirements are the four to five. Idea modules are used each quarter. And again, the provider would ensure that 80% or more of a participant's instruction is delivered through the use of idea modules. In tailored idea, five to seven hours are spent online in Canvas with each week-long module. Like full idea, the online work prepares students for the face-to-face portion of the lessons. Then a minimum of five to seven hours per week-long module is spent in face-to-face instruction in the classroom. So that's an overview of the project and its requirements, full idea, tailored idea. Now that you have that overview down, you're most likely thinking, what does an idea module look like? I keep referencing the idea modules. Let's take a look. I'd like to briefly discuss how the idea modules are designed and then share an example. Here is a list on the slide of all of the module titles by quarter. Quarter one, quarter two, quarter three. Each module title represents 18 hours of material on the same topic. It's divided between nine hours of face-to-face and nine hours of online work in full idea. The modules topic provides the context for the English language skills development in reading, writing, numeracy, listening and speaking and any technology skills. The modules deliver material contextualized in the topic area, such as health and wellness. The idea curriculum is hybrid, meaning that the modules are both flipped and blended. That's a lot of terms. Let's take a couple of minutes to look more closely at these concepts. The concept of flipping the classroom originated in the sciences, but has now spread across disciplines. Commonly the flipped classroom is introduced as a student's homework and becomes what was traditionally taught in the classroom, the lecture. In the flipped classroom, the face-to-face class time is then spent on project-based and problem-based learning. When the project originally began, many of the English language instructors on the development team had to work with the concept a little bit, saying, we don't lecture. So how does this apply to English language learners in English language acquisition programming, especially at the beginning levels? Good question. Bergman and Sam's who are credited with creating the flipped classroom have said that every teacher who has chosen to flip does so differently. So embracing the concept of flip learning in Washington required a culture shift to adopt that thinking. In idea, the flipped concept for English language learners focuses on presentation and practice. Presentation and practice. It's language focused and it's based in grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, background knowledge, content. It's completed online. That's the pre-work. The face-to-face portion of each module focuses on production. So you move from presentation and practice in the online pre-work and you go to production in project-based, problem-based learning and activities in the classroom through the face-to-face time. Throughout this presentation, you'll see how those pieces work together to provide the students with a rich learning environment. Idea is also blended. That means that the curriculum is designed with intentionality so that the online component and the face-to-face components complement each other and interact together. The online and face-to-face activities are never separate entities. Another reason that we in Washington chose that flipped model is because of the advantages that it offers. First, by offering 18 hours of instruction, nine online and nine face-to-face for a total of 180 hours or more per quarter allowed us to significantly increase the rigor for students without requiring them to be on campus for additional time. And it's still dramatically increased FTE generation. By flipping the instruction and bringing the practice that students typically do, or maybe in some cases don't do, to the classroom, student interaction and peer engagement is increased significantly. This also makes student learning the center of the class rather than content instruction. So student learning becomes front and center. Flipping the class fosters independent learning on the part of the students because they're able to interact with the material in a variety of modes and have their opportunity to choose topics that are of interest to them to explore further on their own. And then last but certainly not least, flipping allows instructors more opportunities to focus on individual student needs because the instructor is no longer the center of class activities. So that provides time to offer one-on-one assistance to students who might need some extra attention. Idea modules were also designed using the principles of universal design for learning or UDL. If you aren't familiar with UDL, it is an educational framework that's based on research in the learning sciences, including cognitive neuroscience, that guides the development of flexible learning environments that can accommodate individual learning differences. When developing content, the idea instructional designer applied the principles of universal design for learning, which include multiple means of representation, action, expression, and engagement to the development of the modules, especially those elements presented in the Canvas management system. And I want to give a big shout out to Jess Thompson at the State Board who was that instructional designer doing that work. The concept of universal design for learning was inspired by the universal design movement in architecture and product development. It was originally formulated by Ronald Elmase at North Carolina State University. Universal design calls for the design of products and environments to be usable by all people to the greatest extent possible without the need for adaptation or specialized design. As you know, learners differ in the ways that they perceive and comprehend information that is presented to them. And because of this, they require different ways of approaching content. In some cases, a student may grasp information quicker or more efficiently through visual or auditory means rather than printed text. Additionally, when multiple representations are used, learning in the transfer of learning occurs. These representations allow students to make connections within as well as between concepts. Learners also differ in the ways that they can navigate a learning environment and differ in ways that they can express what they know and how they're going to approach the learning task. Some may be able to express themselves well in written texts but not speech and vice versa. Action and expression require a great deal of strategy, practice, and organization. And this is another area, again, in which learners can differ. In IDEA, students can interact with materials in a variety of ways. In each Canvas module, students have opportunities to interact with the curriculum through those multiple means of engagement. Learners differ markedly in how they can be engaged or motivated to learn. So with many lessons, IDEA gets students to connect the content to their own lives. This allows them to define if and how it's important in their world. The fact that the IDEA curriculum carries an open license allows people to mix and match the modules in a way that's most meaningful for their students. Let me give you an example of that. In the American Education System module, which is one of the IDEA modules, instructors on some campuses receive student feedback. Students said that the parent-centered approach didn't appeal to those students without children and grandchildren. Based on that feedback, instructors were able to tailor the module to focus on student-teacher interactions rather than parent-teacher conferences. This short video is gonna offer us a preview of recurring vocabulary and usage instruction activities called learn. That learn term is important for us. We'll use it again today and tomorrow. So this is gonna give you an idea of how the IDEA model addresses the multiple means so important in Universal Design for Learning or UDL. This video will walk you through an IDEA learn activity. Learns are used to teach new vocabulary. Students are introduced to these new terms and concepts in a variety of ways. First, students are given a list of new terms and audio of the terms being read aloud. Hobby, indoors, outdoors, swim. Next, they practice pronouncing five of the terms. We try to select the five, which we feel students may have the hardest time pronouncing. In the read and listen section, students flip through flashcards that include the word, definition, image, and the vocabulary term used in a sentence. Students can click on the text to hear it read aloud. To swim, to exercise in the water. She likes to swim every morning. Next, students are tested on their listening comprehension. In these three questions, students see a sentence that is missing a word and they listen to the audio file in order to hear the missing word. What is your hobby? Once they have figured out which word was spoken, they practice spelling by typing it in the box. I enjoy sewing clothes for my family and for my friends. The next activity is a little more advanced. Using context clues, students must determine which word completes the sentence. Here we are testing their reading comprehension. Last, students are given a fun, low stakes matching activity. The goal is to make everything disappear by matching the term with a picture of the term. Students are able to review the feedback in the quiz. We encourage teachers to leave audio feedback to help students who struggled with pronunciation and students are able to take the quiz as many times as they'd like for additional practice or review. Following each learn activity, students engage in a discussion. In the discussion, they are given prompts which encourage them to apply the new terms and concepts. Between the discussion and the learn, students are being assessed on different skills and on a variety of different levels. The variety in which students are assessed and taught the vocabulary is a great example of how Project IDEA employs the principles of universal design for learning. So another key element of this curriculum is that it was created with its eventual resource or eventual release as an open and free educational resource in mind. So the state board has an open policy that says all digital software, educational resources and knowledge produced through competitive grants offered through and or managed by the state board for community and technical colleges will carry a Creative Commons attribution license. What does this mean for instructors? The open release of the curriculum means that those who wish to use the materials will have all of our curriculum at their disposal and can determine which modules work best for their institution, demographic and teaching philosophy and it's all free. What does that mean for the students? It's all free. They will no longer have to buy textbooks as part of IDEA. Okay, let's take a closer look at IDEA in practice. IDEA is unique because there are so many layers of learning happening. Students learn English, building language and practicing communication skills within a context like career exploration, stress management or environmental issues. All of the learning happens while focusing on the contextualized topic of the module Instructors and technology coaches, if available or needed, work as a team to assist students with all of the new skills that they are learning. When students come to class, the instructor and or a technology coach supports them as they work on producing Microsoft Word documents, slideshows or online resumes. And so the question that might be going through your mind is who is a tech coach and can we do this without a tech coach? The team approach certainly serves students well and provides welcome support for all involved, but an instructor can also work alone, checking one's own knowledge with each technology skill and planning and adapting instruction carefully. Those are important considerations to make. Many programs start with a technology coach as part of the team, but then as the instructor becomes more comfortable with the curriculum and perhaps increases their own digital literacy skills, they transition to just having the teacher in the class or just having the tech coach there at key times. Key curricular components include 31 week-long modules that layer language, content and technology, each quarter providing eight week-long modules plus recurring intro and end-of-quarter modules. A typical module is broken down into five subtopics corresponding roughly to a five-day instructional week. Of course, subtopics and activities are designed to be flexible so classes on different schedules can adapt and modify as needed. Each module also has an instructional guide and supporting materials in a Google folder for instructors and coaches. Coming to some student considerations, the IDEA curriculum offers different potential for different students, flexibility, and the benefits of flipped and blended instruction. It extends the classroom beyond the classroom walls and it promotes student engagement. IDEA is designed as an intensive course that's flexible so it provides the time investment needed. The inherent differentiation puts students in control of their learning, provides self-direction and encourages student-generated content. Finally, it allows for the learning to be adjusted to the hybrid or flipped and blended format. An example of full IDEA. At North Seattle College, full IDEA is taught as designed 18 hours a week. Community-based organization partner, North Seattle Goodwill. It's a connection with and access to external local resources and then campus resources such as the library, the student learning center, the wellness center, counseling, and work source. An example of tailored IDEA, it admins community college. It admins tailored IDEA is taught for a total of 10 hours per week. The community-based organization partner is Latino Education Training Institute to provide access to external student supports and community resources. And then again, there's all of the campus resources, student technology, advice and resource team, library labs, counseling, career action center, and diversity student center. Now let's take a few minutes to get into the actual module design. So we're gonna look at a module, Job Search and Interviewing, one of the modules that are in the IDEA curriculum. This slide illustrates the flow of the online and face-to-face components of the job skills subtopic. Remember, there are usually about five subtopics in each module. So this job skills is within the Job Search and Interviewing module. One day of online pre-work and then the next day of face-to-face instruction in the Job Search and Interviewing module. As you can see the students online, pre-work is designed to prepare them for subsequent discussion and practice in the classroom. All of the activities that the students do at home ahead of time. And the practice is then moved over into the production as they work on problem-based activities in the classroom. So let's look at a learn activity. I mentioned that that concept of that idea of a learn activity was important for IDEA. This is online pre-work, what we're looking at, and it takes about 15 to 25 minutes of course time. In the first section of a learn activity, students listen to new vocabulary terms to familiarize themselves with the pronunciation of those terms. The second section of a learn activity asks students to record themselves saying five of the words that they just heard in the first section. Instructors then listen to the audio files once they've been submitted by the student and they provide students with written and oral feedback on their submission. In the third section, students use Quizlet flashcards to study the vocabulary. The Quizlet flashcards integrate words, definitions, images, and contextualized sentences. The cards also provide audio recordings done by native speakers to allow for further input and reference. The fourth section of a learn consists of fill-in-the-blank questions which assess the student's comprehension of terms. Students listen to a recorded section. Sentence. In the fifth section, students complete a fill-in-the-blank activity using vocabulary terms. Students read a short paragraph and choose the term that best completes the sentence. This is similar to a closed activity, however, in this case, the words to choose from are provided via a dropdown menu. The final section of a learn is a scatter game. The scatter game is created from the original Quizlet deck. Students practice matching vocabulary terms to the corresponding image and this is a fun low-risk way for students to test their recall. All learn activities are followed by an online discussion. The discussion prompts students to use the vocabulary presented in the learn to respond to two to three questions on the topic. As these activities are designed for students in levels one through three, sentence stems are included as models for students who may not know where to start. After students complete the learn, they work through additional online activities that present material to students. In this read, listen and do activity on job skills, students think about their job skills and identify jobs that match those skills. The activities shown on this slide illustrate the read and listen portion of the activity. Under the chart, there's a linked document that students can click on to see the words used in sentences. Students then complete a do activity. The purpose of this page is to get students to think about their job skills and identify jobs that match those skills. The activities shown on this slide illustrate that do portion. In the do portion, the students are asked to write about their job skills using the prompt. What are your job skills now? What unique or special skills do you have to offer a new employer? It instructs them to include both hard and soft skills and then to make a list of jobs that they think match their skills. They have a list of jobs below for ideas and then they submit their answers via Canvas. In this and all do activities, students are provided with directions via a Google link with written and visual instructions using GIF images. After students complete the learn, they work through additional online activities that present material to students. In this read and watch activity, students learn and review verbs in the past tense in the context of their experience and skills. They also watch a video on verbs in the past tense. When applicable in this type of activity, additional charts for students reference are provided via Google Docs. After completing the read and watch activity, the students then have the opportunity to practice what they learned. Practice activities provide students with the opportunity to check their understanding of the material presented. Immediate feedback is provided to students for most practice activities. These activities are also designed for students to take multiple times. So the student can identify their mistakes, go back, review, and try again. To illustrate how instruction is blended, let's look at some of the face-to-face activities which are designed to encourage students to produce language using the concepts presented in practice online. In this case, students orally review the job skills and then categorize them as either hard or soft skills. Students complete a job seekers reading activity in which students work collaboratively to identify the hard skills and soft skills in the profiles of four job seekers. Once the skills are identified for each job seeker, students read job ads and identify the job that is right for each job seeker. Finally, they share their selections and explain why they were made. Following this activity, students complete a job skills activity in which they need to describe job skills and work experience using the past tense. So over the course of the pilot, we've had the opportunity to meet many students and hear their stories. Additionally, many program instructors have shared their student successes as well as their own successes with us. We would like to share one student's story with you before moving on. Adria, since this is one of your former students, would you like to say anything more before we start the video? You know that I would. All right, microphone at the ready. Hi everyone, I'm Adria from North Seattle. I actually, I'm gonna tell you, I was flipping around in my computer for a minute here because it occurred to me, I think I could go back in my Canvas messages and find the beginning of this story, that I'm short story that I'm about to tell you. So in the spring of 2014, this was in the third quarter of that first year, phase one of the project. While we were still writing curriculum while debuting the modules. Well, back in that stage, there was a time in the spring when my Dean, Kim Chapman, who was at that time at North, our Dean in basic studies. And now she's at Edmunds actually in Humanities and Social Sciences, I believe. Kim and I were to go across the state to Walla Walla to do a bit of an update for our state board of directors on how things were going with this new fangled pilot project. And so the two of us decided to just go ahead and make the flight. It's a long drive or a short flight. We went the latter option. And we had the option to bring along a couple of students, but that was a lot to drag a couple of students across. So on a Monday morning at about 6.30, I sent a quick Canvas inbox message to four students who were in my class at that time. These were students who were in their third quarter. So they had started with me in that fall. And I chose those four students just because they were four who I thought would be able to look back a few months and kind of reflect on their experience and give a little bit of an update or their thoughts on the program. I'm telling you this just to give you sort of the backdrop for the video that you're about to see. This short video, as Will said, it's a student. You can see that's just a conference room down the hall from my office. It's produced no more professionally than me with my elbows and my iPhone as kind of a tripod situation, just asking some questions to the student here, Amado. I sent this quick message early that morning to four students and said, hey, you know, Kim and I are gonna go and speak at a meeting. I'd love to take some comments from you if you can tell us what you think about the program. Here are a few questions I might ask you things like this. If you have time, if you're willing, I'd love to talk to you after class one of the next three days, 6.30 a.m. 9 a.m. when I arrive at class, maybe 8.50. I have Amado and Lohan at the door. Teacher, we are ready. They wanted to talk right there and right then. Well, hold on, let's talk after class. But after class, we just went, did this tripod situation and this is what you see. And I tell you it this way because I want you to know just how kind of organic and genuine this is. But you'll see, it's nothing but genuine feelings out of Amado here. So enjoy. Thank you, Rachel. I want to ask you about how we learn in the class. Do you like learning face-to-face? Do you like learning online or do you like both? Both, both is very important because you're learning online too many things. But face-to-face you can practice. You can confirm how you're learning online. Okay, maybe you answered this a little bit already, but how does this class help you? Too much, too much, too much, too much. Really, I wish the idea class continued in not just three colors. In my personal opinion, I wish I could learn the idea class maybe are like six colors or a little bit more is fine for me. Can you think about something that you learned in the class that was important for you and tell me a little bit about that? Yes, of course. I learned in use a computer. In the past I never didn't use a computer. Now I can do it. I can make a PowerPoint presentation and also a couple of weeks ago my friend came with me. He has a car, he wants to sell this car. So he told me, I need some pliers, I can tell him. I can make for you if you want. So I'm opening up a PowerPoint presentation. I can make a good, good pliers, good pitchers and good information. Do you think idea is a good class for ESL students and would you recommend it for other students? Absolutely. If this class, idea class, can change it for ES regular class, I think everybody they want to learn in English, they can improve English fast, very fast. Great. Amado, thank you very much. Thank you, thank you for that. Like I said, students always say it best, right? It's fantastic. For additional information, this session is coming to a close to request additional information about idea, learn how to access materials or find out about additional training opportunities. You can always contact Jodi Rubach, our program administrator for idea at the email listed on this slide. But throughout the conference, we're also going to be speaking about these additional opportunities. Okay, thank you so much for listening and for your attention to this opening session. I think that's enough juice to get us going, right? Yes, okay, good. So we're gonna take a short break right now. It's also a great chance to refresh coffee and do what else you need to do. And then we're gonna come back for the Q and A. So I'll be inviting, Jodi will come up to lead the Q and A. We'll be inviting our faculty, trainer, experts up here to field those questions. And then I'll be among you with a mic to help navigate those questions and answer. So a short break and we'll see you back in about 15 minutes.