Aug/100
New List of “Settlement Agencies” for Settlement.Org Services Near Me
Over the last year or so we have integrated the community agency mapping services of Findhelp Services into Settlement.Org. This is the group that does the “Blue Book” of community services and 211ontario.ca. For the most part we have been really happy with this new tool but we still felt some of our search results were too broad to be useful to someone looking for specific services.
For example clicking on “Settlement Agencies” in Guelph used to give you dozens of results, however we know that there are only 3 or 4 agencies in that region that you could really call a “Settlement Agency”. What was happening was that our search was looking just for keywords and not services identified as “settlement agencies” and returning way too many irrelevant results.
So we worked with Findhelp to come up with a solution. In the end we took our expert knowledge of the settlement sector and created a list of traditional “settlement” agencies. Then we had Findhelp code each agency in a special way that allowed our users to only see agencies we mark as a “settlement agency”. Now you really do only see the few settlement agencies in Guelph.
We understand our list won’t be perfect. We have started with CIC-funded, NSP-funded and relevant OCASI member agencies and we will continue to update our list as need be.
But we feel we have created a very usable directory of settlement services across Ontario – a guide that will be easy to use for newcomers and those trying to help.
Try it out for yourself – Search by Region.
Jul/100
New Site for French Speaking Settlement Workers
We recently launched a new site that will support the Francophone settlement sector by providing information and resources focused on professional development, capacity building, promising practices and information-sharing.
Ensemble pour l’établissement is our French language equivalent to the At Work site. But it isn’t a direct translation. Like all of our sites we tailor the content to the audience and their specific needs.
Ensemble will post:
- News related to changes in immigration policies and procedures, new initiatives in the sector, publications on immigration and diversity, and more.
- Professional development events such as conferences and training workshops.
- Job postings in the settlement sector and related fields.
- Resources for professional development, including online training through tutorials and webinar recordings.
- Requests for proposals from Citizenship and Immigration Canada and other funders.
The website is still a work in progress, so be sure to expect continual changes and improvements, including the addition of a discussion forum where French-speaking professionals in the sector may share information, network and support each other through online interactions.
Visit Ensemble pour l’etablissement at: http://ensemble.etablissement.org
Jun/100
Settlement.Org User Survey Report
Like most sites Settlement.Org has tried to get users to fill out a ’site survey’ but very few people did. The information we got was not very useful. So we took it down when we changed to our new look.
However, as part of our ongoing evaluation exercises for our projects we decided to get ambitious and go for a once-a-year type of survey with a large number of respondents.
The major purposes for the evaluation of Settlement.Org were:
- Provide a better picture of the users of Settlement.Org
- Obtain feedback from users about their satisfaction with the redesigned and reorganized Settlement.Org website
- Assess the usability of the website for newcomers
- Collect feedback from users about the strengths and limitations of Settlement.Org website and their suggestions for improvement
We worked with our evaluator Dr Arnold Love to come up with about 20 questions which included several demographic questions.
A total of 608 Settlement.Org users completed the online survey. This participation rate produced a very statistically significant set of results.
You can download the full Survey Report here (2MB, PDF)
Findings Summary
- 95% of respondents indicated a high level of satisfaction with the website
- 97% of users would recommend it to others
- Nearly all (93%) of respondents said they quickly understood how to use the Settlement.Org website.
- Suggested ways to improve the site included better searches, keeping content updated and providing a call centre/chat features.
There is much more detail in the report including demographic breakdowns on gender, immigration status, age, etc.
Lessons for Doing Surveys
We learned a lot about how to do a successful survey.
1) Offer prizes: We offered an IPod and other substantial prizes and this made a big difference we feel. Over half of the respondents opted-in to the draw.
2) Reminders: We put the survey on for 3 weeks and sent out reminders through various channels at least once a week.
3) Try to restrict survey to the audience you are trying to measure: We wanted just newcomers to take the survey but we feel there were a number of “settlement workers” who took the survey too. This isn’t a bad thing but it probably skewed a couple of questions such as “time in Canada” and “immigration status”. What we learned was to do a better job communicating who should and shouldn’t take this survey and to use the technical tools of the survey programs to direct user types to different questions.
We hope to do this survey every 2 years. The next survey planned will be dedicated to finding out how our sites can better assist workers serving newcomers.
Feel free to contact us is you have any questions about this survey.
Jun/100
Basic Settlement Information Available in 17 Languages
We have just recently rolled out another 20 touch-screen kiosks to CIC offices and newcomer centres across Ontario. You can see posts below for more details on the kiosks.
The settlement information is pretty basic but it is meant to quickly highlight some services that very recent newcomers (or those getting ready to come) might not know about. The objective is to get the newcomer to visit a settlement agency and be ready with some questions to ask.
What is new about this round of kiosks is that we edited the videos to be very generic and therefore useful anywhere. These multilingual videos can stand alone on USBs, kiosks in any location, laptops and, of course, online.
You can find all 136 videos on a dedicated YouTube channel.
http://www.youtube.com/welcometoontario
Mar/100
Kiosks Live!
Some good news!
We have been asked by Citizenship and Immigration Canada to produce 20 “settlement information” kiosks that will be placed at CIC Regional offices and other similar locations. These kiosks contain basic settlement information in 17 languages.
To make this happen we have had to edit the content from the original kiosks as they were very “reception centre/school” oriented. These new videos will be much more timeless and can be used anywhere. We can post them online, put them on a USB or use them in Kiosks at any location and the content will work.
These new kiosks will be rolled out in the first half of 2010.
You can view the original, school based, kiosk videos here.
Mar/100
First Screen Shot – OTIS 2.0
We have spent the last several months working away on a new version of OTIS. OTIS (Online Tracking and Information System) is the data entry and reporting website used by Settlement Workers in the: Schools (SWIS), Libraries (LSP) and LINC (SSIL) programs.
Workers enter the data from each session they have with clients and then supervisors and other stakeholders can create aggregate activity reports.
The current system (OTIS 1.0) was built nearly 10 years ago and was never built to handle the wide variety of programs that we have now. We started with SWIS, now we have SWIS, LSP and SSIL. And who knows what is next.
Enter OTIS 2.0. The new site will be much more flexible and client/worker-centred.
Below you will see the first screen shot of what OTIS 2.0 will look like. The page shown is part of the registration process for a client whose name will be recorded as part of the registration. There is also an option for anonymous registrations.
Check back soon, as we will post other screen shots as they are available.
* please note: images and text are subject to change
OTIS 2.0 Screen Shot - Registration Page
Nov/090
TV Ads for Settlement.Org and Etablissement.Org
We have spent that last 6 months or so working with a production company to come up with TV ads for Settlement.Org and Etablissement.Org.
The process has been a great learning experience for us. From choosing the type of commercial to do, writing the scripts, choosing the narrators and then finally approving the final product OCASI staff have been involved at every step.
In the end we chose to do an animation style because it will allow us to use the ad with multilingual soundtracks without needing to dub the language in. And hopefully, the ad will be more timeless as we don’t have to worry about changing styles.
We explored putting the ads on mainstream channels but the cost was prohibitive. Tens of thousands of dollars for what seemed like a very limited run. In the end we wound up sticking with mostly culturally-based channels like OMNI-TV, which is probably the best way to go anyway.
Look for our TV (and radio) ads running November 2009 to February 2010 and see below for the Settlement.Org version.
Oct/090
Online User Testing
We recently used an online service that lets you select test participants from a pool of pre-qualified people who will then perform tasks on your site and report back.
We think that it worked amazingly well!
The service (usertesting.com) explains it best on their website. Here’s an overview:
- You sign up for user testing, specifying:
- The demographic profile of your target audience
- How many users you want
- What tasks you want them to perform on your site
- We notify users. Within seconds, representative users start recording their screen and voice as they use your website, speaking their thoughts as they browse.
- You watch and listen to them use your site. Each user’s session – mouse movements, clicks, keystrokes, and spoken comments – is saved as a Flash video for you to watch.
- You read their summary.
- What they liked. What they didn’t like. What would have caused them to leave your site.
While we couldn’t choose ‘immigrant’ or ESL as a characteristic we wanted in our test users, we were able to use age, income and location to create our target audience user base.
The whole process, from signing up to getting the videos back, took less than 3 hours. Well worth the money (less than $100 per test).
Having recorded video and audio of the testers going through the tasks we assigned was incredibly useful.
Watch the video below as an example and enjoy a sneak peak of Settlement.Org’s new look – coming soon!
Sep/090
Final Word on the Kiosks for this Year
Well, it is official. We won’t be doing any of the Touch Screen kiosks this year. However, the funder is still interested and may put it out as a full project next year.
Internally, we liked the concept of the Kiosks but from a timing and workload standpoint we are somewhat relieved to see implementation delayed. With the budget freezes earlier in the year not allowing us to get started we were running out of time to undertake such a large project.
You can see the English versions of the Kiosk vidoes on our YouTube channel.
Aug/090
OTIS 2.0 – First Step of Many
Since 2000, the OCASI-managed OTIS website has been the data entry and stats reporting system supporting the Settlement Workers in the Schools (SWIS) program. In the recent years, OTIS has been expanded to support the information needs of the Library Settlement Partnerships (LSP) and Settlement Services in LINC classes (SSIL) programs.
This expansion has come at a cost as the original OTIS design doesn’t work well with multiple groups and their individual reporting and data needs. To get the new groups on to the system has required some compromises from everyone.
However, over the next 7 months OCASI will be working with SWIS/LSP/SSIL staff to collect potential requirements that will shape the revised version of OTIS – OTIS 2.0!
First Meeting
The initial information gathering session with 20 SWIS/SSIL/LSP Coordinators was held on July 15, 2009. The session provided the group with an overview of project and an opportunity to gather the initial business requirements.
Some important highlights from the discussion include:
- The best thing about the OTIS Data Entry site is the support provided by our staff member Elena!
- Workers can’t generate reports on their own data, feel disconnected from their efforts
- There is a desire for very basic online client management but NOT online “case” management
The following slides contain all the questions asked at the meeting and the responses.
Watch this site for more updates. We are moving into discussions with each of the groups to create a list of individual requirements.