International Computer Driving License Comes to Canada

Perhaps you know something about computers, but find it hard to define what level you are at. What is "basic competence" - a term often cited by employers - in terms of computer usage? The International Computer Driving License (ICDL) establishes a standard definition of practical competence in Information Technology according to an international industry standard. The license matches the needs of both staff and employers in its clear definition of essential computer skills and establishes standards for everyone who uses a computer in either a professional or personal capacity. The license verifies users’ competence, certifies their computer skills and makes them readily mobile within Canadian business and across the rest of the world.

Initially developed in Europe in the late 1980s as a training initiative, the ICDL became a standard-level test for licensing in 1995. It is now used in 25 countries around the world. According to ICDL Canada president and CEO Bryn Jones, "ICDL is the only defined standard for basic computer literacy in the world."

The licensing process employs a special user-friendly skills card. This card records the skills demonstrated in each of seven computer-related modules: basic concepts, using the computer and managing files, word processing, spreadsheets, database, presentation, information and communication. Once the card-holder successfully completes testing in all seven modules, a license is awarded.

Test centres will be established across Canada in schools, universities, colleges and technical institutes, as well as private and government-run training centres. Discussions are already underway with many colleges and institutes to establish accredited test centres. For more information, visit www.ICDLCcanada.com or contact ICDL Canada Limited, 2800 Skylark Avenue, Suite 402, Mississauga, Ontario L4W 5A6, tel.: (905) 602-8094, fax: (416) 352-5660 or e-mail info@ICDLCanada.com.

Mount Royal Named #1 Athletic College in Canada

The consistent championship-winning style of the Mount Royal College Cougars has earned them the 25th Anniversary Overall Supremacy Champion award from the Canadian Colleges Athletic Association (CCAA) which is the national governing body for men’s and women’s college sport in Canada.

Awards... Et Cetera

Internet Student Newspaper Wins Award

The Journalism Program, School of Media Studies, Humber College recently won a prestigious international award. Humber Et Cetera Online, the internet version of the student newspaper, received an Award of Excellence from the College Press Network in their Best of College Press category. The award was presented in Kansas City at the National College Media Convention.

Centennial Wins North American Award

Centennial College was one of seven colleges and universities from across North America honoured with a Retention Excellence Award from Noel-Levitz, a consulting firm specializing in higher education enrollment management. The award recognizes innovative programs and services that promote student success and help to keep students in college.

Private Sector Partnership Award

The Marine Institute and Silverthaw Visual Arts won an award from the Canadian Council for the Advancement of Education for best private sector partnership. A digital video and film production facility, Silverthaw Visual Arts partnered with the Marine Institute to develop Transport Canada-certified training courses for distance delivery target at senior deck and engineering officers.

Bacchus Campus of the Year Award

The Grant MacEwan Community College Students’ Association and its Steer Clear Committee received the Campus of the Year Award from Bacchus Canada. The Association received the award for coordinating the best alcohol awareness and activity programming out of all post-secondary institutions in Canada for 1998-1999. Bacchus Canada is a national network with over members. It functions as a national clearinghouse on alcohol information, coordinates such events as National Collegiate Alcohol Awareness Week and Safe Break Week, and is involved in running poster and advertising campaigns that advocate the responsible use of alcohol.

Assiniboine receives national recognition

Assiniboine Community College was honored this year with two national awards from the Canadian Council for the Advancement of Education (CCAE). The council represents communications, student recruitment, alumni and fundraising professionals at colleges and universities across Canada. One award was for Best Brochure, College Stream and the other for Best Program, Small Shop, (four or fewer employees) which was related to The Right Choice Scholarship and Bursary Fundraising Campaign.

Dawson College Completes Study on Technologies for Disabled Students

Dawson College recently completed the Adaptech Project which examined the use of computer, information and adaptive technologies by college and university students with disabilities. This nation-wide, federally- and provincially-funded research project was the largest empirically-based study of its kind ever conducted in Canada.

The goal of the project was to gather information which could assist in decision making and ensure that new policies, software and hardware reflect the needs and concerns of a variety of individuals: college and university students with disabilities, the professors who teach them and service providers who make technological, adaptive and other supports available to the higher education community.

The research was divided into three phases. Phase One consulted focus groups of students with disabilities, disability service providers, professors, and other concerned individuals, with the goal of obtaining a sense of the broad issues regarding computer technologies and postsecondary students with disabilities. In Phase Two, structured telephone interviews were conducted across Canada to gather data on: training; advantages and disadvantages of computer use; information on adaptive technologies from the student and disability service provider perspectives; data on what students use and want in terms of technology; the types of technology available for students with disabilities; and, funding. Phase Three involved the distribution of questionnaires to college and university students with disabilities to address the issues of: the type of computer and adaptive technologies students use or wish they were using; the purpose for which students use computers and the Internet; how they purchased their computer and adaptive technologies; why they might not have a computer or adaptive technologies; what kind of computer access is available to them at school; and, what are their views of current government programs and manufacturers who provide equipment.

Funding for the Adaptech Project was provided by the Network for the Evaluation of Education and Training Technologies, the Industry Canada Office of Learning Technologies, Programme d’aide à la recherche sur l’enseignement et l’apprentissage and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

The final project report, Learning Technologies: Students with Disabilities in Postsecondary Education, is now available on the web at olt-bta.hrdc-drhc.gc.ca/publicat/Dawson79160exe.html. For further information on the Adaptech Project, as well as the chance to join an e-mail discussion forum, visit www.omega.dawsoncollege.qc.ca/adaptech.

CANARIE Inc. Announces Learning Program

CANARIE Inc. recently announced a new cost-sharing fund that will enhance innovation in Canada's education and training sector. CANARIE is Canada's Advanced Internet Development Organization and works in collaboration with industry, governments and research and education communities to leverage the enabling capacity of the Internet to deliver the benefits of the information age to Canadians.

The CANARIE Learning Program is a $25 million, four-year program to support development of broadband applications that promote learning at all levels.This program has been established with funding from Industry Canada. The objectives of the CANARIE Learning Program are to enable innovative projects to be undertaken by consortia of institutions and companies and to reduce structural impediments to effective use of advanced networks for education and training. Projects might include large-scale demonstrations, research test-beds, repositories for learning objects or other innovations designed to have a broad-based impact on the education and training sector.

For more information, visit www.canarie.ca or contact Jamie Rossiter, Director, Learning Program, CANARIE Inc. at tel.: (416) 979-2930 ext. 21 or email: Jamie.Rossiter@canarie.ca.

Cégep de Rivière-du-Loup Recognizes Students’ Personal Commitments

Cégep de Rivière-du-Loup is now offering the Montaigne Profile program which recognizes the personal and social development of students. The Profile is named for XVIth century French writer and philosopher Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, who believed that education was not only found in books, but in all learning opportunities for personal enrichment. Created by Cégep de Limoilou, this new certification is designed to value a student’s investment in their personal development through participation in sporting activities, extracurricular activities, cultural projects, travel for study and volunteer work.

Students register for the program when they enter the Cégep. They receive a progress card and forms on which to record their achievements. Points are awarded in six categories of achievement: commitment to study; a professional portfolio; extracurricular activities; community activities; communication and languages; and, national and international awareness.

Students who meet the Profile criteria are awarded a certificate when they receive their college diploma. The program benefits the Cégep by enabling it to offer a value-added college diploma and a stimulating learning environment.

Name Changes

On April 9, 1999, South Winnipeg Technical Centre officially changed its name to Winnipeg Technical College. The new name was designed to clearly communicate the focus on technical education programs and the value of hands-on technical education. The word "Centre" was changed to "College" in order to indicate that the institution is in the business of education and to emphasize the value of technical skills in a competitive job market. The word "South" was eliminated since the college serves students from across the city, province and across Canada.

Alberta Vocational College - Edmonton is now known as NorQuest College. The change of name is the last phase in the transition from a goverment-administered institution to a board-governed public college. "Nor" stands for the gateway to the north, while Quest expresses the process of seeking and attaining goals through education and training. As a public college, NorQuest will also have more autonomy and flexibility to meet the education and training needs of students and potential employers.

Strategic Training and Results Project Shines

Responding to a need for effective, meaningful and innovative support for individuals making a transition back into the workforce, Nova Scotia Community College (NSCC) launched, in August 1999, the Strategic Training and Results (STAR) project. The STAR program is available to all Human Resources Development Canada Skills Development clients enrolled at the college.

The project is comprised of several components: career counselling, PLAR and portfolio development, College 101, ongoing support, job readiness development, and employment placement services. College 101 includes ongoing workshops in study skills, time management, information literacy, test taking strategies, budgeting, networking, goal setting and objectives. Resume writing, interview skills, entrepreneurship skills and other career planning skills are incorporated into the job readiness development component.

Prior to attending the college, each client completes a return to work action plan. While at NSCC, the project offers additional assistance to ensure the student is successful in following this chosen career path. Graduate job opportunities are posted to a website available to all college students. The effectiveness of client retention strategies, interventions and graduate placements will provide the college with an opportunity to evaluate retention and graduate placement initiatives and the role they play in the college.

To date, the response to the STAR project has been overwhelming, with a client participation of approximately 950 students, far surpassing the initial projection of 650. For more information, please contact Kelly McKnight, Nova Scotia Community College at tel.: (902) 491-6773 or e-mail: mcknigka@nscc.ns.ca.

Laugh a Minute in New Humber Program

Humber College has established a new two-year Comedy Writing and Performance Program. Classes, taught by faculty made up of active members of the comedy industry, begin in September 2000 and include stand-up comedy, improv and sketch comedy, voice, acting techniques, scene study, on-camera acting, physical comedy as well as the business and history of comedy. In addition, an industry presentation for producers, directors, scouts and agents will be arranged for all enrolled students. All applicants must participate in an audition/interview as part of the selection process and it goes without saying that applicants must have a "sense of humour". The program is being guided by an advisory committee which includes such well-known names as Rick Moranis, Joe Flaherty, Eugene Levy, Dave Thomas, Bruce Jay Friedman and Steve Allen.

News from the Canadian Association for Distance Education

The Canadian Association for Distance Education (CADE) has completed a constitutional renewal process to create new board representatives from five sectors within the Canadian mosaic. Bill Fricker, Technology Integration and Innovations Marketing Consultant, Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, is the college sector representative. CADE serves as a forum for distance educators and publishes a quarterly magazine, Communique, The Distance Education Practitioners' Magazine, as well as the biannual Journal of Distance Education. For more information on CADE, visit www.cade-aced.ca. Non-members can browse while members have access to the members' online directory, board minutes and members' news.

If you are interested in membership in CADE or would like to share information on distance education at your institution, contact Bill Fricker at billf@nait.ab.ca or tel.: (780) 471-7862.

Grant MacEwan premieres First Canadian Applied Degree in Supply Chain Management