OTAN News

Upcoming OTAN Activities - Week of January 26

OTAN Digest – January 2026

Read the latest digest for information on 2026 California Adult Ed Students Succeed nominations, TDLS, Canvas, and our latest news articles and web-based class activities. Access here: OTAN Digest – January 2026

This Week’s Upcoming Activities

Friday, January 30, 1:00 - 2:30 pm | Designing Canvas Assignments That Support, Engage, and Respect Adult Learners | Christina Hyatt, OTAN Subject Matter Expert | This interactive session focuses on designing Canvas assignments that reduce confusion, lower anxiety, and clearly communicate expectations for adult learners. Participants will learn how to use built-in assignment types to create clear, accessible, and flexible assignments across adult education programs. The session will also demonstrate how optional AI tools support instructors in drafting instructions, refining clarity and tone, and creating consistent layouts efficiently. Participants will leave with practical strategies and ready-to-use ideas for designing assignments that help adult learners feel supported, confident, and successful.

Coming soon!

Tuesday, February 3, 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.

Saturday, February 28, 9:00 - 10:30 am | Create a Course Teacher Hub Template | Dana Thompson, OTAN Subject Matter Expert | Discover the Teacher template for Canvas! This session introduces the features and tools designed to support faculty in managing resources and course materials. Learn best practices for using the template and adapting it to enhance your teaching workflow.

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!