Lori Howard: I have to accept. Welcome, everyone, to California EL Civics Exchange-- Accessible Instructional Materials for English Learners. I'm Lori Howard, CASAS program specialist coordinator, and I'm here with my two wonderful colleagues, Portia La Ferla, also of CASAS, and Anthony Burik at OTAN.

We have a lovely presentation for you today. I have put the link to the slides in the chat, and I also have a QR code here for you if you want to take your phone out and link to the slides that way, or you can do it after the session.

Here's an overview of our agenda today. We're going to give you an overview of the EL Civics Exchange, and introduce you to the EL Civics Exchange website. We're going to let you know how you could submit instructional materials if you are with a WIOA Title II agency, and how to access them in any case.

We're going to go over the rubric criteria for submitting some accessibility requirements. Another requirement is our Creative Commons attribution, so we're going to tell you everything you need to both access and submit materials. We're going to show you some resources, and, of course, we'll have time for questions and answers for you.

So our goals for today is by the end of this session, you will be able to identify the organization of the EL Civics Exchange website, and identify the process for accessing and submitting instructional materials. And now I'm going to hand it over to my colleague, Portia La Ferla, who will give you more information about the EL Civics Exchange.

Portia La Ferla: Thank you, Lori. OK. So to begin with, what is the EL Civics Exchange. It's a repository for original EL Civics constructional materials that were created by California WIOA II agencies. And through this site, California is offering a repository for all of the great materials that you've been creating, that our schools have been creating.

And anybody can access these materials. Anybody, any place. But only California WIOA II agencies can submit materials. And as I mentioned, this has been a-- I don't know if I mentioned it, but this has been a joint project between CASAS and OTAN funded by the Department of Education. The next slide, Lori.

So California agencies have been requesting a site like this for a really long time. They've wanted access to quality materials so that everybody doesn't recreate the wheel every time. And we haven't been able to do that in the past because we didn't have a system for vetting the materials.

And we do believe that agencies should have access to high-quality materials, and now we feel like we've come up with a system that will allow us to post these really great materials that are accessible to everybody. And we're only able to do that through the CDE, CASAS, OTAN collaboration for funding and work on the project.

The materials are going to be evaluated for or are evaluated for quality before they're posted. So it's the quality of the content, and then OTAN checks them for accessibility features so that we can make sure that anything that's posted to the website is accessible to all. And we hope that whether or not you submit materials, that you will use them, and that they'll serve as excellent models for those of you who want to create your own materials.

They might give you ideas for things that you hadn't thought of in the past. It might help you to vary your materials in a way that serves your students better. And we hope that, possibly, you would consider submitting them to the site so that other people can use them as well. So let's go to the next slide, and talk about what kinds of materials are included.

So the site is only for instructional materials that teach EL Civics content to English language learners, and that are related to the California civic objectives, and the language and literacy objectives. So they should match exactly what you're teaching for the different COAAPs that you select.

And the materials that you contribute or that you use could be for all of the 30 hours of instruction that are required for EL Civics, or it just might be for one unit or one part of a task. And they could be instructional materials for the student with practice packets, they could be teacher instructions with practice packets. It depends on the submitter, what is to be posted.

And only the instructional materials can be posted, not the assessments. Because EL Civics in California agencies earn payment points when their students pass assessments, which makes them high-stakes tests. We can't have the materials out on the World Wide Web where people who shouldn't be looking at them like students who are taking the assessments might be seeing them.

And the materials need to be original, not copyrighted. So no pages from textbooks, for example. And they need to be licensed by Creative Commons, which tells users how they can use them and whether they can adapt them or not, and gives credit to the creators. And we're going to look at Creative Commons a little bit later.

And, also, the materials, as mentioned, must be accessible. So they need to be 508 compliant so that anybody can access and use them. And I know a lot of you are already making your documents accessible, but that might be new to some of you. So a little later in the presentation, Anthony is going to look at some accessibility resources for us. And the next slide, Lori.

If you do submit materials, there's a two-step review process. So first, CASAS is going to review them for the quality using a rubric, which I'm going to show you later. And we'll look at the quality of the presentation and practice, and how the COAAP is taught, and then we'll look at Creative Commons licensing.

After that, we'll pass the materials to OTAN, and OTAN will do the accessibility check. You might get emails along the way about the review of your materials either for content or accessibility, and we'll use that back and forth to make sure that the materials are ready for posting, and then we'll make them accessible. So now I'm going to turn this over to Anthony, and he's going to give us an introduction to the website.

Anthony Burik: OK. Thank you, Portia and Lori. Yes, so I'm going to give you a quick orientation to the EL Civics Exchange website. We will also take a live look at that. But we wanted to give you just a sense as to when you come to the website, which is elcivics.otan.us, what you're looking at, and how you can start to navigate around the site.

And as both Lori and Portia mentioned, anybody can come to the site to take a look at the materials that are repository there. And if you want to make copies of them and such, anybody is able to do that. We're going to talk about how you submit materials to the site, which is limited to WIOA II agencies, but we'll talk about that a little bit later.

So when you come to the EL Civics Exchange-- again, elcivics.otan.us-- at the very top of the site, you'll see our logo. If you click on that logo at any point, it'll bring you back to the home page that we're looking at right now. And then across the top there is a light-bluish banner, and there are two links there. One is to a Resources page, which has a lot more information about how to submit materials, information about accessibility, Creative Commons licensing, photos and such.

And then, also, there's a login link. So, again, if you want to submit materials, you'll need to first create an account in order to log in, and then you can go ahead and submit. But, again, you don't need to create an account to come to the site, you can just come to the website and look in, review what's there. And, again, if you want to access any of the materials, you're able to do so.

A little bit lower on the page below that light-blue banner, you'll see that introduction to the exchange, what it is, how it's organized, references, the accessibility, and the licensing pieces as well. There's a dark-blue button below that which says, Begin the instructional materials submission process. So, again, if you do want to submit materials to the exchange, that's where you would start. You would click on that button.

And then on the left-hand side of the screen, you'll see a menu. If you are teaching civics in California, these categories should be familiar to you. This is how EL Civics is organized within the State of California. We know that many states have a program called EL Civics. They're not all organized similarly. So if you come to California, however, this is how we have our categories organized according to the following seven categories. Lori, can you click the next slide, please.

So when you scroll down that home page, in the middle of the page there, you'll see the instructional materials, and you'll see those seven tiles there. Consumer economics, community resources, health, employment, government and law, transition, and workforce training. So this is similar to the menu that we just saw on the left-hand side in the previous screen, but here we actually have more updated information on how many resources are available within each of those categories.

So you are able to click on any one of those links, and it will bring you into-- it'll bring you to another page that will actually list the COAAPs. And then, again, depending on what resources we have associated with the various COAAPs, you'll be able to access them from there.

On the left-hand side of the screen, you'll see a couple of search boxes, and then a menu. So, again, if you are familiar with civics in California, you can search by either the civic objective, or the COAAP number. You can also do a keyword search as well. So employment, DMV, doctor, school, we know a lot of the terms that we use in our El Civics COAAPs.

You can also filter by the levels there. So we do have it organized into five different levels, and you are able to choose multiple levels. So let's say, for example, at your agency you're teaching a beginning class. So you might be interested to see what's in the Beginning Low and Beginning High level. So you can check both of those boxes, and then go ahead and search from there.

And then in the lower left-hand corner, you see that green Feedback button. So if you're navigating across the site and you come to a page and maybe something's not working correctly, or you have questions about the content that's on the exchange, you can go ahead and open up that feedback form, and then go ahead and submit your question, or comments, or suggestions, or whatever.

Those emails come to-- or those notices come to CASAS and OTAN. So we'll try to respond to those feedback questions or suggestions as quickly as we can. Lori, I think we're ready for the next slide.

Lori Howard: You want me to talk about this?

Anthony Burik: Yeah. Please go ahead, Lori.

Lori Howard: Great. So these are the COAAPs-- instructional materials that are available based on the COAAPs. So we have 11 sets of materials now, and here are their numbers. So if your agency has selected any of these, materials are available for you.

And we are in the process of gathering more materials, and we would love to see your materials if you're interested in submitting because we do want to put as many materials up as possible. And right now, about 245 agencies could access these materials because they have already selected these COAAPs. I think the next one is me also. Let's see.

Yeah. So we just wanted to share with you about the statistics that people are using our site quite a bit right now. From August 15 to September 15, there were 530 downloads of materials. And then from September 15 to October 12, another 530. So we've had a lot of action in the last couple of months probably because of the start of school.

In total, from March through October, there have been almost 2,500 downloads, and we've had over almost 6,000 visits, and 2,700 unique visitors. Meaning that 2,700 people-- perhaps some of them have visited more than once, and that's why we have this 5,000 number of visits, but 2,700 of them have been different people since last November. So we're doing well, and we'd love you to go to the website and access it.

Anthony Burik: So, Lori, if you'd like, I can-- if you want to stop sharing, I can go live, and then we'll take a look-- hopefully, actually, I have the exchange ready. I do not. One second. OK. Let me get that to my Zoom, share my screen. OK. So hopefully folks can see the EL Civics Exchange screen here, or website, web page, website.

So as I mentioned, when you come to the page, you'll see this logo initially. Again, you can click on this logo at any point, it'll bring you back to this home page. We'll talk about this Resources section later today. But, basically, when you open up this Resources section, you'll get a lot more resources that we want to share with you that hopefully will help you, especially if you want to submit your materials.

So more resources about accessibility, more resources about licensing. We have, for example, some sites with photos that you might consider using as a part of your-- when you create your materials. So there are a lot of resources on this page right here. We also have a couple of short instructional videos or tutorials that will also walk you through various parts of the site and also submitting materials as well.

So, again, on the left-hand side here, here's our instructional materials menu, those seven categories that we use to organize civics objectives in California. Scrolling down the page a little bit more. Again, if you do want to do your submission, you're going to start here. I think Portia will talk about that in a few minutes.

Keep scrolling down the page. And then, again, if you want to do-- if you want to search the materials that are on the site, you would use either these keyword search boxes, or you can also search by levels as well. You can do combinations of things as well, and then go ahead and search. And then here's that Feedback button in the lower left-hand corner.

Let's just take a look-- let's click on one of the tiles here. So let's say, for example, if we click in the Workforce Training tile. So you should see all of the civic objectives first, and then underneath that are the COAAPs. So let's say, for example, you're also working on the Personal Care Aid COAAP back at your agency.

So if we go ahead and click on the available here, we can see a couple of resources from El Monte-Rosemead Adult School. And this has to do with 71.1. Again, as Lori just mentioned, we are really hoping to get a lot of COAAPs that are common across the state onto the exchange as well as-- especially those 243 COAAPs as well, we know a lot of folks are pivoting to the 243 COAAPs, so we're also actively seeking those out to add them to the exchange as well.

There was the question earlier from Darlene that I responded to in the chat, and I believe-- when it comes to standard. So what we have-- what you see here is, basically, what the agency has submitted to the exchange.

So it might not necessarily be-- so, for example, if you are working on a COAAP that goes all the way from beginning low through advanced, it might be that the agency hasn't submitted materials for all of the levels, for example, maybe just the beginning levels, or maybe the intermediate and above. So it really just depends on what the agency has submitted to the exchange.

We're hoping, however, to gather a variety of materials. So even if maybe one agency hasn't created COAAP materials for-- sorry, it hasn't create materials for the entire COAAP for all the levels, you might find a submission from another agency that does cover some of the other levels that might be missing from the first. So I think that's what maybe you meant by standard. I'm not entirely sure. That's my reading of that. But if you want more information, just go ahead and pop that in the chat.

So, again, you can download any of these materials. Typically, they come in either Word format, PDF format, there might be PowerPoint materials, so there might be graphics, things like that. But basically, again, anybody can come to the exchange, download whatever materials might be of interest to you, and then use them at your agency. So let me stop sharing there, see if we have any questions. Otherwise if not, we can turn it over to Portia and Lori for more information on how to submit materials.

Portia La Ferla: So Darlene has another question. Is there a standard by the state for each level? We're using the levels that are the NRS levels, and by courses testing, those would be the levels that we use.

Lori Howard: And, actually, they're based on the model standards of ESL for California, that's how they were originally done. And that document is on the website. It's a combination, really, of the CASAS score and your evaluation of the listing, speaking, reading, and writing skills that the student has. And you should be determining that at the beginning of your course, either through your placement situation, or in a multilevel class, you should determine it before you start instruction of the COAAP.

Portia La Ferla: OK. Next slide, Lori. OK. So we're going to look at the submission process in a moment, and what it looks like when a California agency wants to submit a material or submit materials. So remember that only California El Civics-participating agencies can submit materials, so the site requires a login.

And when you do the login, we can verify that you're a WIOA II agency, and it helps us communicate with you during the submission process. However, if you want to access the materials, no login is needed. So you can go right there today and start looking at the materials. No login, just free access.

And, again, to remember that only original materials can be posted, nothing that's copyrighted. And, also, make sure that the images that you use in the materials are not copyrighted images. They'll be reviewed by courses according to a rubric which we're going to look at for quality.

And then there's also, here on this slide, a selection of acceptable formats. In the future we may allow others, but for now, these are the ones that are acceptable. We highly recommend using Word or PowerPoint because they have such great accessibility tools, especially if accessibility is new to you. PDFs can get a little bit glitchy, but they can be used. Google Docs are a little difficult. We also like posting Word and PowerPoint because they are also editable by others.

And if you take a material for your use and it uses maps but the maps aren't for your community, you should be able to go in and switch those up and customize them for your own students. So that's why we really like Word and PowerPoint at this point of the exchange. And then you must also-- we ask that you check them both for accessibility, that you license them under Creative Commons before you submit them. And then the next slide, Lori.

We're going to look at them according to a rubric. We'll evaluate them both for the quality of the instruction, for presentation, for student practice, and how they're organized. We'll look at what they look like. So is there too much information on the page?

Did you leave enough white space? If you expect students to fill in an answer, did you leave room for that? Is the font size appropriate? Do the teacher materials have enough instructions for the students? And these are some of the kinds of things that we look at. And if we go to the next one, Lori.

This form is the rubric that we're using. It's within the submission process. It's also within the resources on the page. And your materials need to meet the quality standards for the majority of these items. So make sure you look at that as you're considering the materials that you want to post.

There's lots of details that are there. And as we look at them, maybe there's something that's minor that can be fixed, we'll work with you on that whole submission process. So we're here to support you in this. We don't want it to be difficult for you. We want you to freely share, and we'll do everything that we can to facilitate that.

I know sometimes people-- sometimes agencies don't-- they feel like they shouldn't have to share materials that they created. But remember, these things were all created with WIOA funding, and so they're in the public domain. They were paid for mostly by federal grant funding, so we hope that you'll be very generous in sharing what you have.

And then I think there's one more page-- one more slide, Lori. OK. So I think we can go live now. Let's have a look at-- I'm going to take over the share layer and go out to the internet.

OK. So when you go to the EL Civics website, you have to log in order to submit materials. My screen looks a little bit different from yours, but if I go here, it's pretty similar. So if I want to submit new instructional materials, this is where I start. I just click on Submit New Materials.

And then make sure that you read the instructions and information carefully, especially the first time. Look at the terms of licensing and submission, and make sure that you get permission from your administrator. And here are the terms of licensing. It gives you links to accessibility and Creative Commons.

And then, also, the rubric is here within the submission. I'm not sure you'll see that when it pops up, but if you open that screen, you'll get the rubric. And as I said, it's also up here in the Resources. And then there are different ways of posting, but we would ask that you mostly post student packets because if you do a lot of individual files, they're very cumbersome to review and to open.

So, for example, in this one, here's just a sample. This is for 48.1. It tells you the level, the tasks, and that is a student practice packet. So it's everything that the student needs for tasks 1 and 2. And then I'm going to go back to my submission page, and I'm going to go to the material submission.

It's a two-page form. It's not very complicated. You'll start with the submitter, and then you'll put in the fiscal year of when the materials were created. If they're more than five years old, we ask that you would update those before you post them because we want the things that are there to be current. And then whether or not you're willing to be contacted, and you need to agree to the terms of licensing.

And then you're going to select your COAAP number. So, for example, I'm going to submit something for 47.1. And if you notice, it autofills the competency area and the civic objective. They're right there for me. I don't have to go looking for those.

And then you're going to list the COAAP task title. So in this example, I'm submitting materials for task 1. And if I look that up, it says, identify-- sorry, it says-- oops, identify internet uses. And then in my case, I want to eventually submit materials for all levels. And it's a written task, and it is a student packet with instructions to the student.

And I have both print and visual materials. I'm not going to make any comments here, but I could. If there's something I wanted the reviewer to take note of, I would put that on these notes. And then after that, I save and continue, and here's the information that I entered. And now I'm going to add my materials.

I click on the Add Materials, and it gives me here the naming convention for both the materials and for the files. So notice it should include the COAAP number, the levels, the task number, and the type of material. So in this case, I'm going to submit 70-- what did I say? It's 47.1, 47.1, and I'm going to submit-- the levels will be Beginning Low to Beginning High. And this is going to be for task 1, and it's going to be a student packet. Packet [inaudible].

And then I'm going to choose my file, which-- somewhere in here. Well, actually, I've got a better way to do that. Let's just drop it, and upload. And here's my material right here. Now, I can go back in, and I can submit another one for a different level, a different task. I just keep submitting until I'm finished.

Sometimes when you put the materials in, they're not in the order that you want them in, and this will allow you to reorganize the order. So if one thing got put in-- it goes in the order that you submit them, and you don't always submit them in the order that you want them to appear. So you can use this to move them, and you can use the Delete Material button if you need to delete something.

Lori Howard: And can I just say, Portia, we like them to be in level order so it's easy for a teacher. Looking at it can find BL, BH, intermediate low to advance, so we like to have them listed in level order.

Portia La Ferla: Right. So any questions about the submission process? OK. I'm going to stop sharing, and send it back to Anthony.

Anthony Burik: OK. So thanks, Portia. So as Portia and Lori have mentioned in terms of the requirements for submission, so there are two main things to be concerned about. One is following accessibility features, making sure your documents are accessible when you submit them to the exchange, and then the second one has to do with licensing. So, Lori, the next slide, please.

So on the OTAN website, we do have a number of accessibility resources for you to take a look at. We also have some of these listed as well on the EL Civics Exchange. Lori, if you stop sharing, let me show folks where those things-- where those resources are.

And OK. So if you go to-- actually, first, let me go to the OTAN website. So the OTAN website, the address is otan.us. And when you come to the OTAN website, you'll see this Resources tab. So if you go ahead and click on the Resources tab to open it, the first resource that's listed is called Accessibility Resources. And then when I click on that link, I will get a page of information about various accessibility resources and features to consider.

At the very top of the page, we do have a few resources that, probably, would be good to review, including this resources flyer. So if I open up this flyer-- this actually lists a number of things to consider, first, when you're creating a Word document. So take a look and see what the instructions are for that. And then if you scroll down to the second page, we also have a list of similar features to consider when you're creating a PowerPoint presentation.

And at first glance, it looks a bit daunting. However, as Lori and Portia have mentioned, we do want to help agencies understand what these different features mean and how you build them into your resources. Again, especially Word docs and PowerPoint slides. But first, take a look and see the information that's contained here on the flyer.

When you go back to the Accessibility Resources page, the next resource-- actually, no. Sorry, not that one. We do have a short tech talk on how you create accessible documents. So you might want to take a look at this tech talk. Again, we'll cover the basics that you need to consider when you're creating those documents initially.

Once you get more familiar with accessibility features and what to consider, on our Accessibility Resources page, we actually have resources for a number of different things to consider. So just more information in general about accessibility.

And then as you scroll down the page, you'll see more dedicated resources. So, for example, within Microsoft, within PDF accessibility, Apple, Google, within browsers, also website content and accessibility, as you work on creating like alt text, for example, for your graphics, and captioning for videos and recordings so you can get some more information about what to consider there.

This is a feature that we're working on intensely at the moment, and that has to do with color contrast. So it would be good to maybe use one of these color contrast checkers when you're creating your-- especially when you're adding graphics to your slides, and/or your Word docs or other materials.

Basically, you're trying to create enough contrast for folks who have issues with visual-- I don't want to say problems. But, basically, they have a hard time processing visual images and such. So one thing that we can do is to add more contrast in a lot of our images that will, hopefully, address some of those issues that folks may face.

And then if you are doing presentations, if you're doing trainings with your teachers, for example, you might want to take a look and see some of these resources about how to make your presentations more accessible as well. We do have an intro video that you might want to take a look at, too. What to consider when you are considering accessibility. So that's at the very bottom of the page.

And then on the EL Civics Exchange website-- again, if you go to that Resources tab at the top-- so we do have some similar, but also some other resources for accessibility that you can take a look at here on this page as well.

And then, also, too, on the Resources Page, more information, again, about submitting instructional materials that Portia just covered. And then, again, especially when it comes to graphics, we list some sites that you might consider when adding graphics to your materials as well.

So that has to do with accessibility. One of the things that OTAN does offer training in is accessibility. So you can always reach out to us for more training on accessibility. Just send an email, I'll put it in the chat as well, support@otan.us, and we are more than happy to schedule a training with your agency as well. OK. Lori, I think, back to you on the slides.

Oh, actually me. So the other thing in addition to accessibility to make sure that you are addressing when you submit your materials has to do with licensing. So, basically, the guidelines that we follow are Creative Commons licensing. And you may be familiar with Creative Commons, especially if you see one of those logos at the bottom of the slide, the two Cs in the middle of the circle surrounded by a circle. Sorry, my vocabulary is-- working on my vocabulary today.

But anyway, the point with the licensing is a way to grant permission for others to use your original creations. So as Portia and Lori mentioned, because WIOA II agencies are using federal funding to create the materials, it really means that these materials can be shared with the public. However, we do want to honor your creations, and, basically, set the licensing terms for sharing. So the way that we're doing it right now is by using the Creative Commons licensing. Lori, next slide.

Again, so the most important piece of this slide is at the very bottom here that, basically, indicates how you've set up the-- or that licensing has been applied to your creations. So you can put the year, for example, and then you can put the sentence, this work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 license. And if we go to the next slide.

Basically, this is the license that we have agreed to that will be used for EL Civics materials. So basically, what you need to do is you can include the language that was on the previous slide, but also you can add this Creative Commons license graphic to the bottom of your submission. So basically, what this means is all the terminology here.

So it's a CC BY-NC-SA license. So, again, the CC refers to the Creative Commons. The BY means that if you use-- sorry, if you download materials from the exchange and then recreate them for use at your agency, what you need to do is you need to acknowledge the original creator.

So, for example, if I work at Mount Diablo Adult, and I am downloading some materials that were created by Torrance Adult School from the Exchange, then when I create my Mount Diablo Adult Education materials, I would give credit originally to Torrance Adult School.

So I would just make a mention of that at the very bottom of the page, and that way we're acknowledging the original creator and their creation, and that this is not our original creation, but it's a version of, and it's the Mount Diablo Adult Ed version of that.

The NC refers to noncommercial uses of the materials. So nothing ends up on teachers pay teachers. This is all free financially for use, so and no one will make a profit off of the creation and distribution of these materials.

And then finally, the SA refers to adaptations that must be shared under the same terms. So, basically, what that means is that this license will, basically, go from material to the next material to the next material. So if I'm originally borrowing from Torrance, so then I create under Mount Diablo, and then my friends down the road at Acalanes Adult School like the Mount Diablo materials, then they're going to apply the same license to their material.

So, basically, that license will follow all of the materials along the stream. So in that way, everything will be shared under the same term. So that's how that would be applied. Next slide, Lori.

Oh, so I'll put a link in the chat. So we do have a video that we created for the EL Civics Conference, I think, a couple of years ago that has to do with licensing. So it'll give you more information about how that works, I'll pop that link in the chat as well. So, Lori, I think, back to you.

Lori Howard: Great. So thank you, Anthony, and thank you, Portia. We want to tell you a little bit about resources that are available. And so, again, Anthony showed you this page about the EL Civics Exchange resources. So you have a picture of it here if you need a reminder. And again, you can go up to the top of the EL Civics Exchange to find this page, just clicking on Resources.

And we want to, also, give you a call to action in that we would like to, of course, have instructional materials for all the COAAPs, but the ones listed here are the most used COAAPs by the most agencies. So we want to get the most bang for our buck, so we encourage you to submit in these COAAPs especially.

And especially something early on in the economic-- I'm not sure what it's called, economics-- for example, 1.6 would be a really great one. If you've got materials on 1.6, we'd love to work with you to get them posted. And if you have anything in the 50s, especially 52.2, which is soft skills a lot of people use, we'd love to have something posted in that. And, of course, anything else you want to submit, but these are the ones we'd really like to have you do.

And, again, as Portia said, we want to encourage you to share your materials. They are public domain, so please be generous with them. It is a feather in your cap. You will get credited. Your materials will always say the name of your school and your agency, and so we hope that your administrators would support you in making these submissions because it is a wonderful thing for the agencies to submit these materials.

As Portia said, be sure to use the current EL Civics Exchange materials as your model to have, at least, that quality. And if you have something new to contribute, that's great, too. You might want to look at the rubric on the website so that you are sure that you are following the quality of what we're expecting here. And, again, these are all vetted materials, excellent materials.

You have to make them accessible. And we are here to help you. So if you can get right in the feedback form as Anthony pointed out to you, or you can write to elcivics@casas.org, we would give you assistance in, not only whether your materials would be vetted, but also accessibility.

Again, as was said, you submit your materials here. We suggest you communicate with us first just so you don't have to resubmit them. It's a little bit easier process if you tell us that you're going to submit, but you can just go ahead and submit. And remember that it's only for WIOA II agencies, those are those that can submit materials. But anyone can access materials.

So now we're to the questions and answers. Any questions? Do we have any questions here? I see--

Portia La Ferla: So, Lori, I just wanted also to say that if you're considering submitting, you can look at the materials that are already there for formatting as well. You can see what the footers look like, and where Creative Commons was put, and how the files are named. That's information in the submission process, but you can always look at those as models, too.

Lori Howard: Great. And I put our email address, elcivics@casas.org. If you're thinking of submitting, and you want to get more information, or you want some help, or you want us to look at your materials ahead of time, we would love to work with you on that, elcivics@casas.org. Any questions?

Anthony Burik: Actually, Lori, I'll just chime in on what you just said, too. Well, actually, I'll say two things in that regard. So one thing, if you do have civics materials back at your agency that have been-- you've been using them for a while or whatever, and you're thinking, oh, it might be nice to add them to the Exchange, you can always send them to us, either to CASAS and/or OTAN.

We're happy to take a look at them initially, just-- especially when it comes to the accessibility issues, for example, I know a lot of folks, I think, find that to be the daunting piece of the puzzle here. But we can always run through materials initially, see where the problem areas are, maybe do some training and education along the way so that as you're working through your materials, you'll know what to look for, and you'll identify the big-ticket items that need some attention.

The other thing, too, is we're really hoping that in the future, especially as new COAAPs are added to El Civics in California, that when the agencies start creating new materials for those COAAPs, that they actually start with accessibility in mind right from the beginning, right?

So as you're adding your photos and graphics to Word documents and slides and such, if you're adding tables or charts, if you're adding-- if you're looking to format your forms or whatever in certain ways, let us be a part of that process to help you right from the beginning. Because it's a lot easier to address those issues and features right from the get-go, rather than having to go back and fix them, which may be a more difficult process.

So look at it as an opportunity to really train yourself and others at your agency on accessibility by starting fresh from scratch on a new doc or PowerPoint or whatever. But thinking about accessibility, how do I make it accessible right from the beginning, that'll make it a lot easier when it comes time to actually send those materials for submission to the Exchange, so.

Speaker: I just wanted to let everyone know we have about 10 minutes, and I wanted to have everyone-- thank everyone in advance for joining the session. I'm going to put the evaluation link in, and then I'm going to step away. So thank you, Lori, Portia, and Anthony. So you have about 10 minutes for questions.

Lori Howard: OK. Before we go there, I just wanted to add to Anthony's comment to say that the reason we have this requirement on the EL Civics website is because the state is either requiring or encouraging that our materials be 508 compliant. So whether you're planning on submitting your materials to the EL Civics Exchange or not, you should be-- any new materials you write should be 508 compliant.

And so this is your opportunity to get assistance in making them 508 compliant, as well as then being generous and submitting them to the EL Civics website. So I just want to mention that it's not only for this purpose, it's for anything you have, anything you're doing, anything you're creating at your site for any of your instruction should be 508 compliant.

Portia La Ferla: As Penny Pearson says, "Do it going forward, don't worry about the past." There is a 10:30 session at the summit tomorrow, too, if you're interested in learning a little more.

Lori Howard: So we would love to have some feedback, either-- I think people can unmute and ask, or they could write in the chat. What is your reaction to the El Civics Exchange? And do you think your staff members will access the materials or submit materials?

And what other assistance or training do you need? Would you like to either unmute or type in the chat? We'd love to hear about it. Or if you have questions, we'd be glad to answer them. Let's give you some time to type in the chat.

Portia La Ferla: Also, if you would just put yes or no in the chat whether or not you have ever accessed the site, we'd be interested in that. So just a yes or a no.

Lori Howard: Thank you. Or Y or N. Abbreviate if you'd like to. Thanks, Portia, for mentioning that. OK. While you're doing that-- OK. We have some not yets. OK. Not yet. I love that. That means it's going to happen. That's wonderful. Yeah, just look around. It's really great just to see what other people are doing, and thank you for letting us know that.

And we hope-- you saw our data chart. So if you do look on it, next month you'll be on the data chart that says there's been more either visitors or downloaders, so that's great. And I don't know if this was mentioned already, but you may already have materials for one of the COAAPs that are listed here in the EL Civics Exchange, but you might want to vary your material. So incorporating something new might be great.

Again, you don't have to use it as is. As Anthony said, you can take it and adjust it as long as you give credit. So you could change just one of the tasks out that you would like to give a little umph to some new materials. It's always nice for your students.

And as we said before, we would love your feedback, hopefully, on the evaluation that you'll fill out after this session. But also when you go to the website, if anything is difficult for you or if you have questions, go to this Feedback button. We are meeting every month to just go over how this is working, and so if you give us feedback that you think something should be changed or added to, or something you would like on the website, we would love to get your feedback.

And so just to tell you, you've had some information about being able to identify the organization of the EL Civics website, and the process for accessing and submitting materials. And we hope you will access it, or, at least, visit the site. And we see Eleta has done so, which is great.

So, again, we hope you'll view the materials and submit if possible. I think we've looked at that material. And we want to thank you for attending. We hope that you will fill out the evaluation. Again, here are our emails address if you have any questions specifically for us, or you can always email elcivics@casas.org.

And here, again, is the QR code if you want to access the slides. And I know some of you had trouble before, but it is open to you at this point. Anthony or Portia, anything you'd like to say, last words?

Portia La Ferla: Go ahead, Anthony.

Anthony Burik: Well, no. Just to say that we are, again, always looking for materials, but we also look at it as an opportunity to support the field in the creation of these materials, submitting them to the Exchange, being able to share them with your colleagues across the state.

When I was the EL Civics coordinator back at my old agency, I really wish that we had this exchange way back when. But here it is right now, so I'm hoping that all of us across the state can really take advantage of it, and, also, just if you can share your materials, but we're here to support you as best as we can.

Portia La Ferla: And I just want to say, Lori's been working really hard to make sure that the most in-use COAAPs have materials posted. And she's also working with agencies on new COAAPs, and especially for the IET programs. And as she's working on those, she's working with the agencies to try to get the materials posted that go along with these new COAAPs. So just give her a round of applause for how hard she's working on making this available to everybody.