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Upcoming OTAN Activities - Week of February 9

Posted on 02/09/2026

Upcoming Holiday Closures 📅

Please note that our team will be taking a couple of short breaks to observe the upcoming February holidays. We will be closed on:

• Monday, February 9 (Lincoln’s Birthday)
• Monday, February 16 (Washington’s Birthday)

We’ll be back at our desks and responding to all inquiries the following Tuesday of each week.

This week's Upcoming Activities

Tuesday, February 10, 2:00 - 3:30 pm | AI assisted Storytelling Projects for ESL students | Barry Bakin, OTAN Subject Matter Expert | In this session, participants will learn how to use AI apps and other tools to create a unique story, including illustrations in online book form for writing practice and the excitement of story creation and publishing for themselves and for students. Participants will be guided through simple storyboarding, prompt writing, story generation, image generation, and publishing an online book that can be shared with others.

Thursday, February 12, 10:00 - 11:30 am | NotebookLM in Action: Mapping, Assessing & Presenting Ideas (Part 2) | Farzana Cassim, OTAN Subject Matter Expert | This second session builds on the foundations from Webinar 1 and dives deeper into NotebookLM’s tools for analysis, assessment, and presentation. Participants can follow along as we create outputs such as Mind Map, Quiz, Slide Deck, Reports, and Data Table together in real time.

Friday, February 13, 12:00 - 1:00 pm | OTAN Tech Talk February 2026: Canvas Mastery Paths: Differentiating Is Grating! (Uh, I Mean Great!) | Josh Eick, OTAN Subject Matter Expert | Do you have students who struggle with a lesson, some who do okay, and others who sail through the lesson quickly and get bored? Solve that problem with CANVAS mastery paths! Participants will learn how to use mastery paths in the Canvas LMS to differentiate learning for students in the same class.

Coming Soon!

Tuesday, February 17, 3:00 - 4:30 pm | Formative Assessments with AI Oh mAI! | Francisco X. Pinedo, OTAN Subject Matter Expert | Learn how to use AI to create effective formative assessments for your students. In this interactive session, you’ll create or upload a lesson plan and use it to build formative assessments your students can complete in class or outside of class. You’ll leave with ready-to-use formative assessment tools you can implement in your classroom right away.

Thursday, February 19, 2:30 - 3:30 pm | Northstar Digital Literacy User Group | Anthony Burik, OTAN Coordinator | Join this user-driven group of adult educators using Northstar Digital Literacy at their agencies. Some possibilities for regular meeting topics: hear about the different ways educators are using Northstar, share best practices and things that work, address and get advice on concerns and challenges, and exchange tips and ideas. Let’s discuss using Northstar for the benefit of our students, staff, and communities!

Friday, February 20, 12:00 - 1:00 pm | WIOA Continuous Improvement Plan - Q&A | Dr. Carolyn Zachry, State Director of Adult Education and OTAN/CALPRO Staff | This webinar is part of a series of sessions that address the Continuous Improvement Plan (CIP). Before attending the webinar, adult education administrators and staff involved with the CIP should watch the Continuous Improvement Plan Guideline video on the Adult Education Online Application and Reporting site. In the video, Dr. Carolyn Zachry provides a review of the Continuous Improvement Plan (CIP), including requirements and due dates, and a walkthrough of the CIP site. In the Q&A session, Dr. Zachry and OTAN/CALPRO staff will address questions that participants have about the CIP process after watching the video.

March 6-7, 2026 | Technology and Digital Learning symposium (TDLS) 2026 | A hybrid conference at the Monterey Adult School! The Technology and Digital Learning Symposium, hosted by OTAN, is an annual hybrid conference featuring engaging, interactive presentations and vibrant discussions. This event is designed to demonstrate effective ways of incorporating technology to enrich the learning experience, expand educational reach through a combination of in-person and online learning, and improve the overall efficiency and effectiveness of adult education programs. Register now!

OTAN Satisfaction Survey

OTAN would like to invite you to participate in our new Satisfaction Survey to help us improve our services in the following areas: 

• Trainings and Presentations
• Website Resources
• Curriculum Offers 
• Digital Learning Guidance 
• Canvas 
• and additional OTAN services 

Please take some time to complete this survey as soon as you have a chance! This survey should not take more than 20-30 minutes of your time. As with all OTAN surveys, the results will be kept completely anonymous.  You can find the survey here: Survey Link 

Thank you for your time and your feedback!