Public Library Of Youngstown & Mahoning County: Northstar Digital Literacy

Press release from the Public Library of Youngstown & Mahoning County:

Sara Churchill

March 1st, 2022

Paid for by the state of Ohio for public libraries, this is the newest resource for anyone looking to improve their skills with computers, software, or technology. Northstar defines the basic skills needed to use a computer and the internet in daily life, employment, and higher education.  This is a self-directed assessment and learning tool that covers a variety of technology scenarios. It comes complete with short lessons and practice exercises to improve skills on a number of common computer topics.  

Origin of Northstar Digital Literacy: 

It began due to the recession in 2008. A St. Paul Minnesota library contacted a local literacy agency for help in teaching library users the basic computer skills needed to apply for jobs online. This led to the creation of assessment tests and lessons that became Northstar Digital Literacy. It is now fully maintained and kept up to date by Literacy Minnesota. Over the years, it has gained prestige nationwide and has even been used across the globe! 

What’s in Northstar? 

Northstar has 14 Assessment Tests, 6 self-paced online courses, and 13 instructor-led courses filled with lessons for librarians to use with our library users. Content is arranged into 3 main categories: 

The 14 Assessment tests available are: 

Each Assessment test takes approximately 15-30 minutes to complete, depending on the number of questions, your knowledge, and computer skills. 

The 6 self-paced online courses available are: 

Each self-paced course is setup with a series of lessons for specific topics, followed by a review quiz to test yourself on retaining what was taught. An entire online course takes approximately 30 minutes to 2 hours to complete all the lessons and review quizzes. 

For the 13 Instructor-led curriculum courses, the only assessment test currently still awaiting curriculum lessons is Your Digital Footprint. Each lesson within the curriculum course takes from 1.5 to 2 hours to complete. An entire course takes anywhere from 15-18 hours based on how many lessons are within it. Due to the length of time required, as our library becomes familiar with the technological needs of our library users, we will be teaching lessons specific to the skills needed. 

How does Northstar work? 

First, it is recommended to create a free Northstar Learning Account. While you can do the assessment tests without a Northstar account, your test scores will not be saved and you will not have access to the 6 online learning courses. Plus, only those with Northstar accounts who take a proctored Northstar Assessment can receive a certificate if they pass the test. 

After you create your account (which your library will help you do – just ask us!), you would first take an Assessment test as a pre-test. This allows you to discover what skills you already have and find out which skills you need to work on obtaining. When the test is completed, you will see a screen showing your score, what skills you have on the left marked with a green checkmark, and which you need on the right with an x. And across from the skills, if there is an online course created for that assessment, you will see a Practice button with a dumbell on it.  If you click that button, it will take you directly to the lessons to help you gain the needed skill. This can be a time-saver as you only take lessons for the skills where you missed questions. If you click the Go to NSOL button, it will take you to the beginning of the entire online practice course.  

For those assessments without online courses, as you see, there is no link to practice lessons.  

Instead, you can contact the library for lessons. We can arrange a Book-A-Librarian session to teach you using the Northstar curriculum specific to the skills you need to learn. Depending on the number of skills needed, this could be done in either one or a few appointments. As noted earlier, the individual lessons do take 1.5-2 hours for us to teach them. In the future, we plan to teach some lessons as group classes as well.  

Once you have worked on learning the needed skills, you will re-take the assessment test. A score of 85% or higher means that you pass the assessment. All who earn passing scores will receive a digital badge. (Note: when you claim your badge, it automatically exports to Badgr.com where you can view it by signing up for a Free account.) For those who take the test unproctored, the digital badge will be black & white.  For those who take a proctored assessment, the digital badge will be in color. Plus, only those who pass a proctored assessment receive certificates. 

If you contact the library, we can arrange an appointment to proctor your assessment test.  Then you can earn a certificate such as this one:

You can contact the library by phone: 330-744-8636, by email: reference@libraryvisit.org, or by visiting a library in-person. 

A final note about the Assessment tests is that you only can take the same assessment twice in the same day in order to pass it. A third attempt would have to wait until the next day. 

Where to login to Northstar? 

There are multiple ways, but the best & quickest option is to use the Northstar link from the library’s website at: www.libraryvisit.org 

It is linked on these webpages: 

You can also find the library’s Northstar login page by going to: 

digitalskillsohio.org 

www.digitalliteracyassessment.org 

NOTE: if you already have your Northstar account created, you can just click Login in the upper right and you will be taken to your PLYMCY Northstar Learning Account. 

Northstar Student Dashboard 

Starting out with your brand new Student Dashboard: 

After you’ve taken some Assessment Tests and tried some Lessons: 

The outer circle shows your Assessment Test. The inner circle shows your progress through the online practice lessons. The locks indicate the review quizzes within each course, and they unlock once you complete the lessons. The badge symbol in the middle means that you passed your Assessment. If it is black & white, then the assessment was not proctored. If it is in color, then it was from a proctored assessment. 

Moving around within Northstar: 

Clicking on your name in the upper right corner will allow you to switch from the Assessments page back to your Student Dashboard. In either location, it will also allow you to Log Out. 

In this screenshot, click Northstar Online Learning to go to your Student Dashboard. 

From the Student Dashboard, there are multiple ways to reach the Assessments page.  

Reaching the Self-directed Northstar Online Learning Practice lesson course, is a two-step process: 

Both the Assessment Tests and the Northstar Online Learning Practice Lesson Courses use the same control buttons within them.

Here’s an Assessment Test screenshot with the controls labeled:

Here’s a Northstar Online Learning Practice Lesson Course with the control buttons labeled:

By the way, when you reach the Review Quizzes within the Practice Lessons, the “I DON’T KNOW” button is available. 

Note that the videos within Northstar Online Learning courses have their own control buttons. So, if you want to use close-captioning, you must click the cc button within the video to turn it on. 

I hope you will take advantage of this great new learning resource! As the Northstar trainer told us in preparing to offer this resource to everyone, there’s always something new to learn. She has never yet found anyone who could pass all the Assessment Tests with 100% on the first try. Many of us in today’s world are self-taught using technology and the internet, and we may not realize what we do and do not know. Using the Northstar Assessment Tests can be an eye-opener in that way. Plus, the Northstar Online Learning practice courses can help us fill in that missing skills found from taking the tests! 

Sara Churchill

Sara Churchill is the Digital Services Specialist and Assistant Supervisor in the Information Services Department at Main Library. A major fan of technology devices and computer research resources at work, she enjoys helping everyone learn to use their devices and the library's many online resources.  She loves reading Science Fiction/Fantasy books, British cozy mysteries, True Crime and other true stories, plus a past reader of horror fiction by the likes of Stephen King and John Saul (among others).  Also, she’s a big fan of Sci-fi, action, horror, spaghetti westerns, and based-on-a-true story movies.  Her blogs are for adults and the entire family to enjoy reading and trying out the many online resources free for PLYMC library cardholders to use.

This press release was produced by the Public Library of Youngstown & Mahoning County. The views expressed here are the author’s own.