Information on Instruction for English Language Learners

WIDA and ACCESS for ELLs

Re: Accessing the W-APT and creating D2L accounts

In addition to the WIDA ELP Standards and information about the ACCESS for ELLs™ assessment and the WIDA Consortium, the WIDA website ( www.wida.us) now hosts two important password-protected portals for state and district educators of English language learners. These two portals will allow you to (1) access the WIDA ACCESS Placement Test (W-APT) and (2) create an account for the online test administrator training (D2L).

1. Access to the WIDA ACCESS Placement TEST (W-APT). This password protected site allows authorized users to access and download the W-APT for each grade level cluster and accompanying documents, which are all in a PDF format. To access this site, you must:
1. Go to http://www.wida.us.
2. Click on ACCESS for ELLs™ and W-APT located in the “highlights” bar on the right.
3. Scroll to the bottom of the “ACCESS for ELLs™ and W-APT” page to find the “WIDA ACCESS Placement Test (W-APT).” Click here to take you to information about the W-APT.
4. Scroll to the bottom of the W-APT page to the section, “Accessing the W-APT”. Clickhere http://www.wida.us/login_form?came_from=http%3A//www.wida.us/w-apt/w-apt-docs&retry=&disable_cookie_login__=1
5. to get to the log in page where you must enter a username and password. The username and password are unique to each district; they are not unique to each individual user. ELL program coordinators/administrators should keep this information secure and provide it on a “need-to-know” basis to staff.
6. Enter your username. This is made up of our state’s two letter postal abbreviation ( me) plus your district number. This should be typed as one word, letters should be lower case. (e.g., ME1234)
7. Enter your password. Your password is made up of a codeword for our state that is consistent throughout the state for all districts plus the last name of your district’s ACCESS coordinator. The codeword for Maine is LOBSTER. An example of a password for a fictitious Maine district would be lobsterberube. This must be typed as one word, all lowercase letters with no punctuation, abbreviations, accent marks, or non-English letters (e.g, ñ).
8. Click log in. This will take you to the W-APT documents. Please read the information on this page and the Test Administration Manual carefully before implementing the W-APT.
   
2. Register for the ACCESS for ELLs™ online training. The online training for ACCESS for ELLs™ test administrators is provided through the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh by the online course platform known as Desire 2 Learn (D2L). This is not the WIDA website; it is a different site. However, you may register for the online training and choose your username and password through the WIDA website. To register for the D2L training, you must:
1. Go to http://www.wida.us.
2. Click on ACCESS for ELLs™ and W-APT located in the “highlights” bar on the right.
3. Scroll to the middle of the “ACCESS for ELLs™ and W-APT” page to find “ACCESS for ELLs™ Training and Certification.” Click here. http://www.wida.us/ACCESSForELLs/training
4. Scroll to the middle of the training page to the second bullet point where it says, “Alternatively, educators who have been provided with a WIDA W-APT ("Screener") username and password may go to https://db.wida.us/d2l to create their own D2L login name and password.” Please read each bullet point prior to clicking on the above link.
5. Click https://db.wida.us/d2l. This will take you to the first of two “WIDA Desire2Learn Account Creator” pages, where you must enter a username and password. These will be the same username and password that you use to access the W-APT. The username and password are unique to each district; they are not unique to each individual user. ACCESS coordinators and ELL program coordinators/administrators should keep this information secure and provide it on a “need-to-know” basis to staff.
6. Enter your username. This is made up of our state’s two letter postal abbreviation (me) plus your district number. This should be typed as one word, letters should be lower case. (e.g.,me1234)
7. Enter your password. Your password is made up of a codeword for our state that is consistent throughout the state for all districts plus the last name of the district’s ACCESS coordinator. The codeword for Maine is LOBSTER.” An example of a password for a fictitious Maine district would be lobsterberube. This must be typed as one word, all lowercase letters with no punctuation, abbreviations, accent marks, or non-English letters (e.g, ñ).
8. Click log in. This will take you to the second Desire2Learn Account Creator page. You will be asked to fill in contact information including name, phone number, and email address and enter a D2L login name and password of your choice.
9. Click Submit. Within 24 hours, Desire2Learn will send an email to you confirming your enrollment in the D2L WIDA ACCESS for ELLs™ training. (Please be sure to include your correct email address.) Be aware that this message is coming. Some computer systems will filter this message because it contains the word “desire.” You should also be able to log in with your chosen username and password whether you receive the D2L confirmatory email message or not. Remember that you must wait approximately 24 hours after submitting the “account creator” form before attempting to log in to the D2L site and when you do, the username must include the prefix “wida- wi-”. The University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh’s D2L site is located at http://www.uwosh.edu/d2l.

Reminder: Please be aware that although the same district usernames and passwords are used to access both sites (W-APT and D2L Account Creator), they are separate links with separate purposes. Furthermore, the D2L account that you create is for use ONLY for the D2L online training; you cannot access the W-APT with individual D2L accounts.