Melinda Holt: You are here for 'Guiding Student Progress from a Distance.' We have in our midst the two presenters, Debi Faucette and Iris McKenzie. They are both here. Debi, I'm handing off to you, and I'm going to try and fix Iris' audio.

Debi Faucette: I want to say thank you so much for inviting me. I am so happy to share some time with you, and thrilled that my colleague, Iris McKenzie, and I can be with you to share some information. And we called this, at the time I was invited to do a webinar, 'Guiding Student Progress from a Distance,' and I do have some exciting news to share with you today that is a way of helping our students in this time.

But the reason I dismissed my video was because I think, I hope, many of you have had a chance, that I have had the chance to meet you. I'm Debi Faucette. I am the Senior Director with GED Testing Service. I have the privilege of managing the state of California in partnership with my colleague, Iris McKenzie, who lucky for you all, we have the luxury of her serving as your person, your California native who is working there with you in the schools, and I get the luxury, if they ever let me fly again, of seeing you on as many occasions as possible.

So we are your two point people for any and all things California GED and want to make sure you have that opportunity to share with us. What we're going to do today in this session, we're going to explore some different types of technology that you can consider using in your classroom. We're going to look at it from the standpoint of options that are available to you and your students.

We're also going to look at how different generations in your classroom have different instructional needs. That is no surprise to any of us in the classroom. And we're going to look at apps and programs that can engage students in active learning. Just think about it. How many of your students are below the age of 25, and think about how the students spend the bulk of their time. They are connected, but how many of them are connected to print materials and workbooks?

So we're going to look at a couple of resources that you can organize classes and instructional activities around. I don't think any of us need to answer this question, and you're probably tired of hearing about we all know what a challenging time we are in. Fortunately, two and a half, three months into this, we've all already figured out some of the ways things are changing, but we were going to constantly monitor how things are changing and how we're going to focus on tools and resources that can help us most in this unusual time that we're going to have to understand maybe more usual than we expect.

So when we say, what's happening on the testing front, the one thing I'm pretty sure of is it's going to be a long time before we see a classroom setting like I have in this picture here. And because we know it's going to be a long time before we see a classroom with this setup, we've got to look at different ways and options to serve our students, both from the instruction side, and to get them through the pipeline through testing. We at GED testing service have been working with your state administrators for both GED examiners and your adult educators in how do we make this work, and I'm happy to tell you that you will receive information.

Some of you have already probably received information if you receive our newsletter in session, but I want to tell you about the test delivery alternatives that are being looked at and proposed and we are trying to make come to life as you and I are talking on here. So test delivery alternatives. Number one, online proctoring GED tests. I hope some of you have opened up your in session newsletter and read about where we are in GED testing service to deliver the online proctored test.

Very briefly, Pearson currently delivers some test in the online proctored format, so we were fortunate that within our overall company, one of the companies under our umbrella did online proctoring of exams. So we did not have to go far to look for an answer as a way to deliver the test in these unusual times. We had very positive response from states to consider this format for the GED test, because they, as we, understand it may be quite some time before you can get back into the classroom, and even when you do, the way you're going to have to deliver the test with a social distancing is still going to limit the ability for tests to be delivered.

So that is one possibility, a pressure release valve to try to get some people through the testing pipeline. Another consideration is for states to look at approvals of additional Pearson Vue testing centers. States all have different rules. In California, you know that public academic sites only are allowed in regulations to deliver the test. We are working with the California Department of Education, and we have submitted a request to consider in this period of crisis for a temporary basis to modify the rules and allow other Pearson Vue testing centers in the state to help in this time of crisis to deliver the test.

Our reason being for this is that as schools, you're going to be very limited based upon your school system rules as to when you can open the doors, and many of you, even if you have the opportunity in the summer, you may not have the funding to deliver the test, and you may not be able to look at testing in the regular school settings until the early fall. Late summer, early fall. We hope that's not the case, but we are hearing that in some instances.

If that's the case, there are other Pearson Vue testing centers throughout the state, and they are not bound by school system rules, and they are motivated to try and open whenever they can be released from your public health department says it's OK and they follow the right rules. If they have the ability to open up and take the pressure off of the need for testing in a facility, we are looking for permission to do that on a temporary basis. Once the schools are up and running and able to meet the demand, the pent up demand, they will no longer be testing, but in this crisis time, that's something we're looking at.

Next, I'm going to talk through a couple of things with you about the online Proctored GED test pilot. Just the basics. Number one, we are not abandoning traditional, in-person test center models. We just know it may be a while, and we are hearing the cry from our states that there is a pent up demand. So why are we looking at this online proctored test? Because we need a pressure relief valve to provide more access to those who are ready to test or those who had canceled appointments based on the pandemic.

Who will deliver this test? GED testing service is contracting with Pearson on Vue platform to deliver the online Proctored exam. Who is eligible to take the test? Because this is a pilot, we're going to have students who are eligible, and I'm going to talk through that eligibility in the next slide.

The students who are eligible will be sent a message and instructions on how to register or schedule an online proctored GED test. What is this? It is the same GED test content delivered online, continually monitored by a third party trained proctor. And when will this begin?

The pilot is anticipated to launch later in the week of May 18th or the week of May 25th, in that timeframe. It will be a multi phased launch, and it's expected to wrap up near the end of July. So that's how long the pilot phase will last. Let's look at the cost. How will it be done? How much?

The cost of the test during the online proctored pilot will be the same as the current test fees. The fees that are normally collected for test center compensation will be used to support the online proctored test. Let me talk about the phases. Online proctoring test timing and schedule. You can see we're going to have four phases.

The first one. We go live, as I said, either sometime during the week of May 18th or may 25th. The go live period is going to be approximately seven to 10 days, and we will have five states in that pilot, and California will be one of those five states. And we're going to triage. There are many people out there that need to test, but we have to triage this, and we're looking at students who were really ready to get to the test and trying to get them through.

Only students with canceled appointments who also have a GED ready green score within the last 60 days will be in this first go live, and it really is an opportunity for us to do a final system test and gathering of data and information about the system and the students. 7 to 10 days there. Phase 2.

We're going to invite eligible students in all participating states. This will be California. I know you're not concerned with what other states are doing. Participating states with no residency queue. I want you to understand. We know California has a residency requirement, but they are satisfied with our methods of checking residency in the online proctoring, and when we talk about a residency queue, that is not California.

That's for a handful of states that have such specific requirements that we're actually going to have to build a queue for them to release people from individually. So we're very fortunate that California is not one of those. In phase 2, you can see the four points of students that we will look at, and they will be invited. You understand that our robust database, we know who these students are who had canceled appointments, who had passed three of the four tests, who had scored GED ready green, or who the state tells us are essential cases that they want to make sure they get them in there.

That's phase 2. Then phase 3-- and the phase 2 will go on until we run those people through the testing. Well, while that's happening, there will be other students who will be newly eligible in those participating states. They can go in, take the GED ready, and in phase 3, if they have scored in the green, and they're in one of those non-queue states, they will have the opportunity to go in-- well, to take the online proctored test, because they're going to take it in their home or at a library, wherever they can get in.

Phase 4 will not occur until probably around June 9th to the 18th, because those are going to be the states with those really specific residency requirements and approval queue, but regardless, they will still be students who have to come in with a GED ready green. Now, that's a lot of information, and I want you to take a look below. We will have a simultaneous GED ready promo at 50% of the cost anticipated from around mid-June through the end of July.

As I said, this is a lot of information to toss to you, and I would imagine if I ask Neda, there's a lot of questions, but before we get to questions, I want you to understand that once we get through phase 4, that will be the end of the pilot some time in the end of July. And then we will open it up as long as it needs to be opened up as a pressure valve release and how it looks moving forward is a decision to be made between GED TS and our participating states.

Before you get bogged down in a lot of questions and details, I want you to see the link. There is a 30-minute Zoom recording webinar that is for educators, and it is called part 1, and we have 16, very detailed slides that goes into far more detail about this process. But I wanted you to know we are with you, we have a solution, and we have a timeline, and this is based on surveys that we did with our states, with our directors, and with our students. Neda, would this be a good time for me to ask you if there is anything you think I should answer now, or continue--

Neda Anasseri: Yes. I was waiting. I was waiting for the opportunity. So Connie is asking, how does she get the newsletter?

Debi Faucette: Oh, excellent question, Connie. You can go to GED.com, and if you click on the educator and administrator are at the top right of the page, scroll down, and it will say, receive the newsletter, register for in session. It's very simple, and the other thing. My email and Iris' email is at the end of this. You are welcome to send something directly to us, and we'll send it to our team to get you on the list to receive in session.

Any of you who do not receive in session, that is our monthly newsletter. Anything we do is going to be announced first in in session. So if you want to be the first to know what's coming up, you get the in session newsletter. Next?

Neda Anasseri: Thank you. Iris, can we hear you now?

Iris McKenzie: You should be able to. I'm hoping you can.

Neda Anasseri: All right, that's what we wanted to test out. Perfect. Thank you.

Debi Faucette: Well, excellent, because this is when I need to add Iris in here, because she is she is closely involved in the online proctored GED test pilot and to share a little bit of information about-- would you like to share a little bit of your involvement today, Iris?

Iris McKenzie: Yes, absolutely. Hi, everyone. I'm going to-- before I even share some information that I'm sure many of you are interested in, I'm also going to type in Debi and my email in the event that you guys are trying to email us right away, but I have already been going through training, which a number of other people have as well to prepare for this online proctoring. The good news is that we have a lot of experts who are prepared to move forward with this.

More importantly, there are a lot of-- there's a lot of security out there to protect the privacy of the student, as well to ensure that we don't lose anyone to the possibility of cheating. So with that being said, even though this is only going to be for a short period of time, this is to help you guys all rest assured that everything that we are doing to minimize students feeling like they don't have the chance to take the test or the anxiety that could be surrounding do they have the tools to be able to take the test at home, we are providing information for students to understand how to navigate through that world. I'm even going to that training myself, and more importantly, being able to communicate with the greeter and a proctor before they even start engaging into the test so that they feel comfortable moving forward when they take the test.

I know that most of us are used to going to the campus to take the test, and so when they are taking it a home, they have a requirement. They're going to have to be in a room where there's no one in there at all. We will have the students show a picture of their ID so that we can identify by looking at them on their camera on their computer that they are who they say they are.

We will also have the chance to have the camera on their computers. Pretty much do a 360 of the room so we can make sure that there is nothing in the room that they're testing in that could be utilized of a possibility of cheating. And we also want to make sure that the whole time the student is casting that they are aware that there is a proctor of watching them the entire time.

So anything like watches on their wrists, or anything that may look suspicious that we will see that and ask them to remove that. We do give warnings in the event that the student for some apparent reason did not understand the direction the first time. After that there are penalties there is continuous misconduct during the time of testing. So just to let you know, the student will also be able to get their scores the same amount of time it would take them have they to get it at the school as well. So the only thing that's changing is that they're doing it in the comfort of their home.

Neda Anasseri: All right, thank you. Debi and Iris, do you want to continue with some of the questions?

Debi Faucette: Let's continue on-- I want to make one other comment. The two things we're talking about I think you can see in the bigger scheme, we understand there's a digital divide, and this online proctored test is certainly something that will be-- in basically our data, we were amazed at how many students said they could meet the requirements. But for those who can't, that's one of the reasons we are looking to figure out what's the fastest way to get some Pearson Vue testing center opened if they have to go in to a hard wall office to take the test.

So we're looking at it from two fronts. Let's take a couple more questions, but I will tell you, I felt like this was such an important thing. I am willing to let that hijack some of the other conversations I had shared in the PowerPoint, but let's take a couple, OK?

Iris McKenzie: Debi, there was a thing that came up earlier. I don't want us to get too far ahead and not address that question. Someone had mentioned that if a student who is from California who is wanting and willing to take a test, but they're currently in another state. Are they able to do that, and how does that process work moving forward?

Debi Faucette: Yes, we have had that discussion with our state administrators. It gets a little gnarly to explain it, but the bottom line is, they have their driver's license, they can prove their residency and their identity. They're not going to get hung up with where they're taking the test based on where they're a resident. I think this call is too gnarly. We are happy to explain it to you in the Q&A, but the object is, yes, we've had that discussion, and they're going to be able to test.

Neda Anasseri: Great. And I believe on slide 7, you explained how much more expensive-- if it is any more expensive--

Debi Faucette: No, it's the same. We're going with the same test pricing that California currently has.

Neda Anasseri: Great. And let's see. So these invitations that you were referring to will be initiated through GED, that was one of the questions.

Debi Faucette: That is correct. We have we have already reached out to some students in phase 1, and we will continue to reach out to the next group. It's because of our data system, we know who these students are, we know exactly where they are in the testing process, so we will be the ones reaching out.

Neda Anasseri: And Elsa's question. Clarify 50% promo.

Debi Faucette: OK, and that is something that I may refer you to the webinar for, because we're going to have some different buckets based on the four criteria for the students. If they had a canceled appointment and they are-- they need a GED ready or they had that GED ready ahead of time, we're going to help them in one way with the vouchers. That will be for GED to manage, and then for the general population, we will have that promo at 50% of the costs, so the $6 test will be $3, but for these students in those four buckets that we said are eligible, we have some different machinations of how we will get the vouchers to them so that they can test.

And as Iris said, they take the test from home, they have to have a web camera, and they literally-- I mean, you can go to Pearson Vue and type in On Vue, and you can learn about the points-- the six point photos that they have to take in the room before they're even allowed to do the test, and those are the six points that people like Iris, who are being trained as greeters and proctors, will be observing.

Neda Anasseri: OK, there are current proctors throughout the state at different agencies that are certified. Would you be accepting referrals? Do you want people or administrators to send you their names?

Debi Faucette: At this time, in the pilot, we're going to start the On Vue team already has a number of proctors, and we are working internally on the pilot. We do expect that, depending on when we look at the data at the end of the pilot, as this becomes extended, if there is more need and bandwidth, there may be an opportunity, but at this time, I would not be able to do anything with any recommendations, but if we have that opportunity, Iris and I will make sure you know about it.

Iris McKenzie: And let me add some value to that. Please understand that people who are going to be greeters and proctors for online testing, these are-- not just myself, but people from all over the globe who work directly with Pearson are training for this. So I have I've worked with people who are in Paris right now who've been granted to training with me, and they're a bit like 2:00 AM in the morning going to training while I'm going to training in California Pacific Standard Time.

So we have so many people who are really coming on board to be a service to every student who needs to take the test during the time of quarantine. So at the present time, we do have so many volunteers just within our company that making that move forward. However, should become an opportunity to add others, we definitely will reach out to the schools.

Debi Faucette: When we talked about, how do we move forward in working with our students, I think everybody's been told to remember to take care of yourself. I know that's easier said than done, but you have to make sure that you're taking care of yourself. Just being aware and maybe journaling, maybe supporting yourself, doing something different. And we're being reminded that's constantly within our organization, and I'm sure you're hearing the same thing, but it can't be said enough. We do need to take care of ourselves because the stress and the strain that we may not realize we're in the middle of is going to affect how we can work with our students.

So let's talk about ways we can help our students cope. Well, one of the things is make sure we're spreading word and sharing facts. I see OTAN has their COVID-19 page. So does GED Testing Service. We all have ways to share facts with our students, and to make sure we pay attention to, not just what we're teaching, but how we're teaching.

We have got to make sure we have the appropriate techniques to convey information to our students. One of the things that is most important for them now is to-- it's always been important, but with all this extra time, understanding how to manage their time. And you can see all of these methods here keeping that to do list, setting personal goals, prioritizing. I was well up in age before I understood that that to do list really had a function, and then once I made the to do list, then I had to go back and prioritize, OK, what do I really need to do on this list, and our students, that's a skill that they may not have yet.

Help them understand how to manage those distractions. Focus on what can really get done, take a break every now and then. For those of us who are working-- well, I've been working from home except for when I was traveling out to visit with you all, but understand to take breaks, step away from the computer, step away. So you may want to look at the bottom here, adapted from mind tools.

There's the website for mind tools. That may be a way for you to understand to share some ideas with your student. Most of all, as their teacher, provide clarity to them, because let's face it. We are all just kind of spinning on the information overload and what do I synthesize, what do I throw out as unnecessary. We need to help students brainstorm ways they can be successful in distance learning, and that has to be based on their individual circumstances.

Where do they fit in that digital divide, so what are their options? Make sure they understand what can be done on the smart phone or laptop access or a PC. So those are things we can do for students. Now, let's talk about what we know and we have found out in the field that can help you in providing some distance learning for your students.

Susan Pitman prepared this, and I did share. Some of you may have been on our Tuesdays for Teachers back in March, and this is a lot of what we prepared and presented at that time. But we found that our friends in the state of Kentucky. Their Kentucky Skills U College and Career Prep is their adult education field had been-- as many states, really forging ahead in distance learning doing a lot of research and sometimes digging around for the things that I don't have time to look for on the internet.

So I want to say thank you to them because they helped us take a look and share with us what you found because we're teachers. We love to steal stuff. I don't need to recreate the wheel of somebody has already found it out there for me. So let's talk about some of the things they're doing at Kentucky Skills U College and Career Prep to support local programs.

Just as you all have OTAN providing ongoing communications, they also can build, expand, and support the Google Classroom for Kentucky's Skills U. They conduct Zoom meetings, just as OTAN is doing for you. They provide information on instructional resources that are tried and tested, so it very much is a mirror of the good work that you have from OTAN, and we're just going to share some of the resources that they found a little further along in the slides here.

But how are you communicating with your students, because I cannot see the questions here. I bet a lot of you will say, we already have a Remind account. That may be something that you already do. Some teachers really like to remind to count, because it lets you set some things up on your phone that doesn't necessarily make your telephone number visible or allow for some of the other privacy issues. It is a two way messaging that lets you communicate with your students to answer questions and handle individual situations.

You can use Remind to share documents. I think sometimes we forget that can also share documents, and if you use Google Drive, Google Classroom, or Microsoft OneDrive, you can connect them to remind to access your files from the composer. So setting up a Remind account if you need a way to stay connected to the students.

Also, we all know we can set up Facebook accounts. Maybe you can, maybe there is a reason you can't, but I would remember that Facebook is more than just cute kitten and puppy videos. You know the things in the bullets that you can do. I wanted to share with you how you get to the web sites, ways you should be using Facebook in your classroom is a very good website if you need some additional ideas, but note the warning that we put in the corner. Make sure that your students put you on limited access, or you're going to get invited to every one of their family affairs and their photographs. So they come with a double edged sword, but it's very important.

I think I don't need to talk to you about and Zoom video conferencing based on the fact that that's how you already communicate, but when we shared this across the country, it was amazing to find out how many teachers had never-- they might have been on a Zoom conference, but they really didn't know how to set things up or how to initiate it. So right now, you've got a basic free version that allows calls up to 40 minutes with a group of up to 100. You can do this with your students in your classrooms.

If you're going to develop lesson plans, you need to identify content resources. Most important. We do have free resources at GED TS. I think every one of you is already well familiar with how to find things, but what I'm going to tell you is in this time where you may have a little extra time between your online classes, it may be a good time to go up to the educators and administrators mark and actually open up every one of these bullets under teaching the GED class-- GED test, and really revisit all of the documents that are there.

I do it. I've been working for 10 years for GED, and I've got to tell you, every now and then I go back there and I go, whoops. I forgot we had this stuff out here. So you may find some excellent resources. We know about the tutorials, you know about our webinars, and you also know about our study guides and free resources. I also want to share with you that, because we can talk about free resources. Our vendor publishing partner, Kentucky Educational Television authority, KET is offering their fast forward, a subscription to fast forward for free for a limited amount of time.

If any of you have any interest, it is a free resource, and I'd urge you to go to the KET website, and we did a press release on it that I'm happy to share in the FAQs to learn more about this free resource that could be helpful for you. You also know we have the resources to guide instruction. Always the high impact indicators.

I know people get tired of hearing me talk about performance level descriptors and high impact indicators, but if you want to know how to get someone to pass the test, you look at those indicators. That's what you teach, that's how they pass the test. We talked earlier. Most of our larger corporations and organizations have a COVID-19 educators support page that we update on a regular basis, and I would urge you to join the GED Facebook group for educators.

I've got the link down here that you can go to that will get you signed on, and it's a great way to connect with teachers all across the country. Now, let's talk about some other resources, and these other resources are primarily things that Kentucky Skills U found and are using, and I'd like to share them with you, and I would bet many of some of them, but if you carry away one new thing, then we've made it worth your while to come through this slide deck. First off, you've got Screencastify.

This is an easy way to put together some full or bite-sized lessons. You can do this-- you can set up a lesson in a math problem, work your way through unpacking a prompt. Lots of things you can do very quickly. These are free resources, all right? So make sure you check out this particular website if you are not familiar with it.

Screencastify. The next one we're going to look at is, and the important thing about this you can post this after you record. Just post to your Google classroom to your Edmodo class or whatever platform you're using. I would like to say thank you to the Bluegrass Technical and Community College for bringing this one to our attention.

The next one I'd like to share with you is Quill.org. Now, Quill is primarily writing and grammar exercises for all levels, including English language learners. Now, the premium version will give you an integration with the Google Classroom, reports on concept mastery, but it does not track time on task. So I need to make you aware of that.

You can find sample lessons, tracking activities by exploring this site. So here's another one you might want to check out. Quizlet. Whoa. Sorry, guys. Quizlet is free through June 30th. And Quizlet, you can get to it from the hyperlink that I've underlined here on the page.

Once you highlight it, scroll to the hyperlink in the text and sign up. It includes formative assessment tools, advanced content creation, that includes audio diagrams, uploading images, and it does track some student progress. So it's not too childish is another thing that was a real selling point for many people who use this.

For those of you who've attended a lot of our-- we always promoted News ELA, which I do think is still a wonderful website, but we've now been brought to our attention, Breaking News English. Breaking News English. The key here is it has audio at a variety of speeds for each leveled text. It's news lessons in seven levels, and you have audio at a variety of speed.

It can also be adapted to work with Google classroom or with other systems, and this one has a lot of ESL materials. So when it says by clicking you can get 4,958 more lessons, it takes you to another page of free ESL materials. I think that's very important in states like California, Texas, and Florida that we promote anything that has something for ESL, OK?

Math Antics. Some of you may be very aware of Math Antics. They are free math instructional videos. If you want to do more with them, you have to get a subscription, but you can get the math instructional videos for free, and many of our providers really highly recommended this. You can see at the bottom of the page that I do have the website lined up for it.

In math, Effortless Math is another one that came highly recommended. Free PDF worksheets for TABE and GED skills practice. They contain answer keys so students can self-check their work, and the worksheets can be uploaded into a Google Classroom. Effortless Math, and this is something that was produced from one of your colleagues, a GED teacher in Arizona.

Light and Salt Learning YouTube channel. She puts them out on YouTube, it's a dedicated site with playlists. You can get the hyperlink under here to go to the URL. She's got hundreds of useful videos, and it's primarily math content, but it also contains some science and RLA, and our colleagues in Kentucky found this work from a colleague in Arizona, and they thought it was something that some of their teachers have really enjoyed.

IXL Learning. Again, this is offering a 90-day trial to assist teachers and a hyperlink to get to it. It is aligned with TABE 11 and 12, it's got content for math, reading, and language, and it is more a learning management tool. It has content, but it's more for management, for diagnostic, analytics, and tracking. So IXL.

GED Math Crash Course. Again, we put the hyperlink in rather than just quoting the website. These are more like flash cards. There are videos and practice problems, and it's divided into the different areas of math content. You can see the examples. Crucial GED basics, point, slope, and lines. So it is divided so you can be very specific in what you're looking.

My apologies. This one is not the flash card. The one right below here. AAAKnow. This is a free resource. Key point. You review the elements of this site. If time permits, I wanted to do some of this, but we're not going to break into it, but it does have thousands of interactive arithmetic lessons. It is more like a flash card type effort.

There is no cost or registration. Unlimited practice. There is a wide range of lessons from grade K through 8, and it does provide immediate feedback. So this may be another free resource that you'd like to have in your arsenal. The nice thing about this one is it comes in multiple languages, more than just English or Spanish. It has translationability for multiple languages.

If you're working with students whose first language is Spanish, this can be a very valuable resource. So something that you might want to look into. How to post your lessons. If you're using Google Classroom, you already know how to do this, but again, every generation has different ways of finding their material.

I don't really think there's a lot of reason for me to spend time on Google Classroom because I think most understand how to use it, but if you want to learn five quick tips for using Google classroom, here's the hyperlink right below if you haven't delved deeply into using it. We also can do assignments and quizzes in Google Classroom. You have that ability.

There are different options for building lessons in Google Classroom. I think many of you have probably attended enough sessions on Google Classroom. Let's move over to Edmodo. My familiarity with moto happened whenever we were doing a training the trainers module and we set up our classroom for our cohorts of training the trainers on Edmodo with our lead person, our lead consultant, Susan Pitman, and this is just a picture of some of the work we did.

It offers communication, collaboration, and a coaching platform to K-12 schools and teachers. So if you haven't checked out Edmodo, it might be something of interest. It is easily accessible. PC or laptop, Android, or phone or tablet. That's very important.

But you can access Edmodo, use a code, and everyone can download and log in. I think we've covered Zoom, even though there's different abilities in Zoom. In heavenly days, I rolled through that so quickly thinking I'd run out of time, but we have actually reached a Q&A point, Neda and Iris, so I will put this up, Iris and Neda with-- you can send your questions to communications@ged.com because we have people reading it every day and actually all they're going to do is forward them to me or Iris for a response, and other than that, I'd like to let Neda come in or Iris and let's see what kind of questions we can answer at this point.

Neda Anasseri: So Iris has been fantastic. She's zooming through those Q&As, so I'm going to actually turn it over to her.

Debi Faucette: Perfect.

Iris McKenzie: Yes. I want to make sure for each person who had a question do you want me to elaborate on it? I was typing as quickly as I can to address a number of questions that were coming in simultaneously, but those three I could take the opportunity if you want me to elaborate.

Neda Anasseri: And the question on the voucher, Iris? If you want to-- that one's--

Iris McKenzie: Oh, yes. So Debi, so there are students who want to know if they're going to have the ability to use the vouchers during the time of online proctoring testing.

Debi Faucette: OK, I am not certain if they're going to be able to use their vouchers. Let me-- before I answer a question that I can't give you a definite on, I cannot imagine that we would not be able to. But put that in the Q&A and let me get it from our people that are the experts to tell me exactly how that's going to work.

Yeah, I do know I plowed through that quickly and I apologize, but I felt like it was all important, and as Iris said, I can get it back, I can get it to you in slower and greater detail, but I also felt it was so important that we spent some time on the online proctored test, because the information is out there now, and you will be able to get that 30-minute webinar on our website, but it may take them a couple of days to post it. That's why I got permission to send you the link that went out in session today with the passcode to get to it immediately.

Iris McKenzie: And there's a question from Roberta. She wanted to know, and I can probably answer this. If a student does not have a computer, does not have access to Wi-Fi, will they be able to take the test? Well, those are the two most important things they're going to need to have in order to take the test, and so the question would be, can they take it in the classroom?

The same rules will apply. So it doesn't matter of the student has their own computer or they're borrowing what my family member from a friend or from school, the same rule will apply. They would have to be in a room by themselves. So it cannot be a shared room. So I know some of you guys are thinking, well, the quarantine in some areas are going to be lifted, can we have maybe two students come in, three students come in to take the test at school?

If they're doing online proctoring, which is what we which is what we're offering right now, only one student can be in the room at a time. That's number one. Number two, I understand some people were asking can anyone in the school be a proctor as well during the time that they're doing online proctoring? Pearson Vue has provided training and approval for those who are going to be proctors for online proctoring.

So if you have not gone through the training and have not gotten approval, of course, you will not be permitted to be an online proctor. I hope that answers some of the questions that were coming through.

Debi Faucette: Good. The Google Classroom, there's the link there, but you will have that on there. On the password, that is a part of the process when someone decides to set up an Edmodo classroom. The person who sets it up will be given a class code, and whoever she wants to invite to join that class, she will share that class code, and they can go into Edmodo, use that class code.

So that was just an example, you see. Susan signed up, she created the class, and she acquired a class code, and now, when she wants to invite someone, she says, here's the class code. When you go to Edmodo, here's the class code that you want to sign into.

Neda Anasseri: OK, and if that was referring to a different line and pass code from the start of that presentation, we will definitely show you on the OTAN website where that is going to be, where you can find those slides.

Debi Faucette: OK, I just want to thank you for hanging with us. I can see we had a lot of people participating, and we truly appreciate it. Iris is right there in Southern California, and whenever she's able to get back to you in the classrooms, she's going to be there. And as soon as they let me fly, I can't wait to be out there. So we value, the face-to-face communication, but she and I are always available.

If you are in a setting, where you are at a school and your teachers would like us to have a conversation, we set up webinars all the time, and so we're happy to do some small group Q&A or things if you need it, so you can contact us directly, we'll work on it. I manage PD nationally, and so I certainly am compelled to make you all the people I answer to first in California. So I thank you for your participation, and I don't know that you'd like me to turn it over to next, Neda.

Neda Anasseri: All right, I'll take it over if you want to go ahead and stop sharing. Thank you Debi, thank you, Iris. We are so lucky to have you present for us, and I'm so glad that we were able to provide all these valuable resources to the field to address the needs of our ASE learners.