"Ask the Community" Forum

FAQs, Tips & Helpful Information

FAQs, Tips & Helpful Information

autor Iya OLS Community Manager -
Počet odpovědí: 3

Hi everyone!

Now that some of you have had a few weeks to get to know the new OLS platform a bit, I thought it would be a great idea to have a forum topic dedicated to some of the most frequently asked questions. I hope this will serve as a resource for you as well as a place for everyone to share their tips and helpful advice.

Let's start with the most frequently asked question:

THE ASSESSMENT - How do I take it? Will I be invited? Is there a Certificate?

  1. No invitation is necessary to take the assessment.

  2. You can take the assessment as many times as you wish.

  3. From EU/Erasmus, “The language assessment is compulsory only for Higher Education students and recent graduates whose mobility program lasts 14 days or more. 

    (Please note: this does not apply to Staff” participants. Staff participants are not required to take the language assessment.)

    We are working hard to allow you to download a pdf with the results of your language assessment. In the meantime, as a temporary solution, please take a screenshot of your results page.”

     
    4. Check this link for the steps to take the test and how to find your results. Please note that the developers are working on simplifying how to find your grades. :)

SAFETY GUIDELINES - Keeping a fun, welcoming, and warm community for all!

Everyone's welcome! But, please remember that this is the internet and we hope that in addition to following the safety guidelines in the House Rules/Netiquette, you also take some precautions regarding your private information. We recommend that you do not share on any public platform: your email address, phone number, or information related to your mobility grant (i.e., the grant number, etc).

In compliance with the EU's privacy policies and GDPR, Community Managers cannot communicate with you using your private email. If you wish to contact us privately (instead of using the forum), you're welcome to send us a private message. You can find this feature in the drop-down menu next to your name - it's where your Dashboard is.

NAVIGATING THE PLATFORM

Go have fun exploring the platform to see how everything works! We will host Open Days and webinars to help you deepen your understanding of the platform, but we definitely encourage you to wander about and get to know it. During our Open Days, you can share your tips with each other and anything else that would be helpful!

NOTIFICATIONS - Don't miss out!!

We don't want you to miss anything! So be sure that you add OLS to your email contacts. We don't want our messages going to the Spam folder.

What are notifications anyway? Great questions!! Notifications are for all sorts of activities that will help you have a great experience on the platform. For example: Updates to the Calendar, Announcements, webinars & online hangout sessions, in-person events, and much more! Go to your Profile (under Dashboard) to make sure you're all set up to receive the information you want.

IMPORTANT: At 5 pm daily, the OLS platform sends its digest directly to your personal email address. Another reason to make sure our messages do not go to your Spam!

BENEFICIARIES - Teachers, Mobility Program Managers, Student Supervisors, etc.

Beneficiaries are also a very important part of our community! We know that you are the other half of supporting learners during their mobility program. While we have lots of information on our OLS Assistance page for Beneficiaries, there are some administrative questions Community Managers can not answer because we do not have access to administrative information. In addition to checking our OLS Assistance page, we recommend that you contact your National Agencies which you can find on the European Commissions site.

That's it for now! But feel free to add anything else to this thread. Maybe you have a tip? Maybe a question? Jump right in and share!

Happily yours,
Iya - OLS Community Manager - English

V odpovědi na Iya OLS Community Manager

Re: FAQs, Tips & Helpful Information

autor Iya OLS Community Manager -
Hi everyone!

Just a quick update to share the following has been added to this FAQ/Tips/Helpful Information post.

From EU/Erasmus:

“The language assessment is compulsory only for Higher Education students and recent graduates whose mobility program lasts 14 days or more.

(Please note: this does not apply to Staff” participants. Staff participants are not required to take the language assessment.)


We are working hard to allow you to download a pdf with the results of your language assessment. In the meantime, as a temporary solution, please take a screenshot of your results page.”

So stay tuned for updates regarding downloading your test results!
Iya
V odpovědi na Iya OLS Community Manager

Re: FAQs, Tips & Helpful Information

autor Jonathan MARTÍNEZ SÁNCHEZ -
Hi I'm a coordinator from Barcelona. I would like to ask what happens if one of my students gets a C1 result in the assesment. Does he have to take the course or is he exempt from doing so?
V odpovědi na Jonathan MARTÍNEZ SÁNCHEZ

Re: FAQs, Tips & Helpful Information

autor Iya OLS Community Manager -

Hi Jonathan!

Thanks for your question.

We do not require mobility participants to take courses on the OLS platform, however, we are aware that some individual schools or mobility programs may ask their students to complete courses on our platform.

As our language courses end at the B2 level, I invite your student to enjoy our other courses on the EU Academy platform, found here: https://academy.europa.eu/

Some of the course topics include Economics for Disaster Prevention & Preparedness Science for Policy Makers, and even a course on Arial Forest Firefighting

A great way for your student to stay involved is by joining our forum discussions. All students are invited to create discussions on topics of their choice in the "Living Abroad" or "Practice Your English" forums. They could discuss ideas developed from doing our courses or create a subject entirely of their own.

For other ways to keep your student's level at C1 or higher, they should read our blogs. The newest one is about how to create a vibrant social life. Then your student can go to the forum thread, "Create your own fun!" to add their thoughts, ideas or experiences.

The professional English and business English series may be of interest to your student too. Feel free to tell them to check out the following two discussions:

1. Career Corner: Moving to Brussels - Professional English and Job Readiness
2. Professional English Practice: What are you doing? Build your vocabulary while speaking about your mobility experience.

Your students should definitely keep an eye out for our Announcements where they can find out about our in-person and online events where mobility participants can practice their English live. Here's an example of a past announcement about the EU's Research and Innovation Days.

Please let me know if you have any other questions. I am always happy to help!

Iya.

*PS: bolded and underlined words are clickable links. :)