SUCCESS STORY

United Association Local 853 Sprinkler Fitters of Ontario

“All of our participants can have equal access to tests and other assessments, no matter where they are located now.”
Nicholas Smirnov
Director of Training
U.A. Local 853 Sprinkler Fitters of Ontario
Customer
About
In Ontario, UA Local 853 is the only Training Delivery Agent (TDA) for sprinkler fitters designed by the MILTSD (Ministry of Immigration, Labour, Training and Skills Development). This TDA tracks sprinkler fitter apprentices registered with the government and offers them the opportunity to attend their trade school.
MARKET
Training
Echosystem Solution
ExamView and PointSolutions

Echo360 Streamlined UA Local 853’s Transition to a Post-COVID World

Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, UA Local 853 used ExamView to generate fair assessments and stored them on an internal server accessible only at the training centre. COVID-19 prevented apprentices from taking exams at the centre, but UA Local 853 didn’t miss a beat by adding PointSolutions to facilitate weekly testing and online participation. Today, UA Local 853 creates exams with ExamView and continues to provide weekly testing and particiption opportunities via PointSolutions, allowing students to choose the best environment for their needs.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, UA Local 853 used ExamView to generate fair assessments and stored them on an internal server accessible only at the training centre. COVID-19 prevented apprentices from taking exams at the centre, but UA Local 853 didn’t miss a beat by adding PointSolutions to facilitate weekly testing and online participation. Today, UA Local 853 creates exams with ExamView and continues to provide weekly testing and particiption opportunities via PointSolutions, allowing students to choose the best environment for their needs.

Echo360's e3 Formula in Action

UA Local 853 uses Echo360 to better engage learners and regularly check for understanding through live polling, ensuring that apprentices have the skills needed to safely install sprinklers throughout Ontario.

Equity

UA Local 853 uses remote testing so trainees can go to a quiet place and log into exams on their preferred devices. This ensures that all test-takers can perform to the best of their ability.

Engagement

UA Local 853 uses PointSolutions to do knowledge checks on the fly, ensuring trainees both keep up with lectures and retain the information discussed. Word clouds and hotspots are especially handy for visual demonstrations.

Evidence

UA Local 853 sees higher retention rates since adding PointSolutions to its training courses. Specifically, learners with documented learning disabilities benefit from the extra knowledge checks to keep them on task.

3 Key Takeaways

Set Realistic Goals

Effective training depends on learners understanding what they are supposed to get out of each lesson. UA Local 853 uses both PointSolutions and ExamView to emphasize the most important pieces of information for a more efficient training experience.

Fair Assessments Are Essential

All test-takers deserve an equal opportunity to succeed but administrators may not have time to write multiple versions of assessments. UA Local 853 uses ExamView to generate up to 26 versions of tests, reducing the temptation to cheat while ensuring that everyone receives a fair exam.

Importance of Accessibility

With PointSolutions, UA Local 853 allows trainees to participate in polling on their smartphones, through web browsers, or with dedicated clickers to facilitate full participation. Nobody is left behind because they don’t have the right device.
Related case studies

Hamilton, Ontario

McMaster University

How to Create a Corporate Training Video to Make eLearning Easier on EchoVideo

Videos are not a new development in the corporate training industry. In fact, training video has been used since employers realized they have a strong incentive to help employees learn. Videos combine visuals and audio, engaging multiple senses to promote learning. They save time and money because a business doesn’t need to hire an instructor every time they want to hold a training seminar. Videos give employees more control over the training process, inspiring them to put forth their best efforts. All of these reasons why video is so effective have been known for years. 

 

The bigger question isn’t what makes video so effective but why creating a corporate training video has stagnated. Once upon a time, instructors would record live lectures on a camcorder and play the resulting VHS tape for a group of employees. DVDs and cloud storage have replaced VHS tapes, but many companies are still creating training videos by recording content to play back later with minimal quality control or editing options. They aren’t thinking of the unique needs of their learners, shy away from innovation, and assume that it’s somebody else’s responsibility to make training worthwhile for their team.

 

 

Blended Learning Paths

Every student has unique educational needs and EchoEngage gives instructors the tools they need to personalize their learning experiences. Teachers can give self-paced assignments to an entire class or a smaller group of students who need a refresher. Students can complete these assignments whenever and wherever they wish, giving them more control over the educational process. Naturally, students will attend scheduled class meetings as well to recreate the traditional classroom experience. Any great K-12 learning management system should deliver comparable flexibility.

 

Audience Participation

K-12 teachers know that audience participation drives educational outcomes, and a great K12 learning management system needs to facilitate that. With EchoEngage, teachers can incorporate real-time polling into lessons and allow students to respond with their choice of devices. Gamification elements appeal to a student’s competitive side, and a built-in virtual classroom supports breakout rooms for collaborative work. Students can even ask for help anonymously if they don’t understand something. Teachers frequently report more engagement using these tools than they did in their physical classrooms.

 

Fair Assessments

While grades aren’t the end goal of education, a great K12 learning management system has to help students pursue success. To that end, EchoExam allows instructors to easily create assessments with 14 different types of questions including bi-modal items and dynamic content that allows teachers to adjust the difficulty as needed. Teachers can also scramble question orders automatically to protect the integrity of exams. Most importantly, EchoExam makes it easy for teachers to review scores for individuals and the class and intervene as necessary. In short, you’ll always have the evidence you need to help students succeed. 

 

Unparalleled Accessibility

Don’t you hate that feeling where you know the information you’re looking for is there somewhere but you can’t seem to find it? K-12 students encounter that problem every day, but EchoVideo offers an innovative solution. Using Automatic Speech Recognition technology, captions can be added to any video to promote accessibility. Better yet, captions are added to a searchable index so students can quickly find whatever they need to review. A great K-12 learning management system should empower students in ways that cannot happen in a traditional classroom. 

 

Efficient Course Creation

Classroom instructors are busy people and a great K-12 learning management system should streamline as much of their workload as possible. EchoAuthor allows teachers to create courses with an intuitive interface offering dozens of block types and interactive templates. Individual course elements can also be saved outside of the course, allowing instructors to quickly add them to other courses where they would be relevant. Once courses are finished, they can be shared by embedding on an iFrame or downloading in xAPI or SCORM formats. That kind of flexibility is precisely what teachers need. 

 

Pursue student success with the Echosystem

We’re confident that the Echosystem experience framework is the best K12 learning management system on the market, but you don’t have to take our word for it. Instead, request more info today to see what it could do for you!

 

Get a demo

Instructors, administrators, and learners everywhere can now experience the most comprehensive suite of learning engagement, assessment, and authoring solutions.

Let’s talk more to find the right solution for you.

Get a demo

Instructors, administrators, and learners everywhere can now experience the most comprehensive suite of learning engagement, assessment, and authoring solutions.

Let’s talk more to find the right solution for you.

OR

Sign Up Today

Effortlessly create assignments, launch assessment questions and collect real-time responses to evaluate performance. Build on outcomes to create continuous improvement with learners at all levels.

Get started for free. No credit card required.

Best-In-Class Learning Management Solution

Question Types

With over 14 different question types, you can match the assessment to the material at hand. Use traditional test question types such as true/false, multiple-choice, multiple response, numeric response, matching, completion, short answer and essay to review, re-teach and reinforce learning.

Reporting & Analytics

Ensuring that learners understand the information presented and how it can impact their success is key. Assess, track and analyze learner performance. Get results immediately and view valuable reports at the individual level, or for the class or group as a whole. Provide results in real-time, or at a later time as preferred.

Dynamic Bimodal Versioning

With dynamic content, generate multiple iterations of exam questions to test the same concept. Use bimodal to toggle between multiple-choice and short answer question types, immediately changing the item difficulty level.

0 K+
Instructors supported
0 MM+
Students engaged
0 MM+
Sessions and views enabled

I Want More Engaging Interactive Lectures in My Classroom

To learn more about how Echo360’s Echosystem can help you conduct more interactive lectures that truly engage each student’s attention, contact us today. We’re excited to share all the features of the Echosystem that can help.

ExploreEcho360.

Learn more about what it can do for your organization

Leading educational institutions are inspiring learning with Echo360.

Related Resources

Customer testimonials, pedagogical articles about teaching and learning, and new product updates and features.

Higher Ed Classroom Lecture

Real-Time Polls Make Classroom Management More Efficient

Real-Time Polls Make Classroom Management More Efficient When classroom education shifted online with little warning in 2020, administrators and instructors explored a variety of learning tools to make the most …

Why Polling in the Classroom Leads to Better Student Outcomes

3 Ways Polling in the Classroom Leads to Better Student Outcomes Teachers are always looking for new ways to help their students pursue academic success, and classroom polling is a …

What Is Competency Based Education (CBE)?

What Is Competency Based Education (CBE)? Traditionally, student progress in higher education is measured in credit hours. Students take a defined number of classes and earn a degree when they …

The Echosystem is our dynamic model of customized solutions that correspond to the relationship, environment, content, and assessment required:

Create, capture, manage, store and search video with the most powerful platform anywhere.
From in-person to virtual to flipped classrooms, we have the tools to engage your learners.
Creating effective and engaging materials for your learners has never been easier -or more impactful.
Create multi-modal assessments and generate analytics within seconds.

We make it easy to bring learning to life — anywhere.

Echo360 is driven to enable inspired learning experiences for everyone, anywhere through the high quality of solutions, tools, and standards we set for our work and ourselves. 

Hybrid Learning

Ensuring our solutions and tools are effective in all kinds of learning environments.  

Video Management

Unleashing the end-to-end learning potential of video, from creation to administration.  

Engagement Outcomes

Designing and delivering effective engagement tools that produce results. 

Reporting & Analytics

Providing empirical evidence of engagement, progress, and opportunity areas through easy-to-use dashboards. 

LMS Integration

Integrating seamlessly with the most widely used Learning Management Systems in education and business. 

Accessibility

Committing to meeting or exceeding standards that ensure learning equity. 

Brock University

Making Online Learning Interactive, Engaging, and Personal

University of Kentucky

Effective Online and Hybrid Instruction 

Northampton Community College

How Echo360 Became an Essential Teaching and Learning Tool at Northampton Community College

Enabling inspiration and access to students, wherever they are.

Echo360 delivers an innovative model for engaged learning in the post-Covid age.  We offer coherent and compelling learner-centered experiences regardless of place and time, so all learners have the opportunities to learn.