State
of
the
Na*on:
K-­‐12
Online
Learning
in
Canada
Michael
K.
Barbour
Sacred
Heart
University

State of the Nation:
K–12 Online Learning in Canada
®
Written by
Michael K. Barbour,
Wayne State University

http://canelearn.net/state-of-the-nation-k-12-online-learning-in-canada/

Methodology
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Na-onal
Overview
-­‐
Ac-vity

Na-onal
Overview
-­‐
Ac-vity
Province/Territory # of K-12
students
# enroled in
distance
education
Percent involvement
NL 67,436 884 1.3%
NS 122,643 ~2,720 2.2%
PE 20,131 108 0.5%
NB 101,079 2615 2.6%
QC 1,307,026 ~70,5000 5.4%
ON 2,015,411 78,095 3.9%
MB 200,807 ~12,000 6.0%
SK 172,205 ~10,000
1
5.8%
AB 616,375 ~75,000 12.2%
BC 635,057 77,912 12.3%
YT 5,122 182 3.5%
NT 8,204 228 2.8%
NU 9,728 33 <0.1%
Federal 106,500 ~1,800 0.1%
Total 5,387,724 332,077 6.2%
!

Na-onal
Overview
-­‐
Ac-vity

Newfoundland
and
Labrador
• Single
province-­‐wide
online
program
since
2001
– grew
out
of
district-­‐based
ini-a-ves
and
legacy
distance
educa-on
program
• No
specific
policies
for
online
learning,
but
provincial
program
is
housed
within
MoE

Nova
Sco-a
• Recent
crea-on
of
a
single
province-­‐wide
program
– grew
out
of
district-­‐based
online
ini-a-ves
• 11
provisions
included
in
the
agreement
between
the
Government
&
teachers
union
– defining
the
work
day,
professional
development
requirements,
program
oversight,
class
size,
&
management
of
the
distance
program
• Provincial
program
is
housed
within
MOE

Prince
Edward
Island
• Uses
online
learning
program
in
New
Brunswick
– phased
out
legacy
video
conferencing
program
several
years
ago
• MOE
has
issued
two
direc-ves
since
2001
containing
guidelines
for
the
use
of
distance
educa-on
in
K-­‐12
environment

New
Brunswick
• Single
province-­‐wide
program
since
1998
(English
&
French)
– used
frequently
by
face-­‐to-­‐face
teachers
too
• Ministry
has
created
a
100+
page
handbook
that
districts
have
to
agree
to
in
order
to
par-cipate
in
online
learning
• Provincial
program
is
housed
within
MOE

Quebec
• Several
individual
online
and
correspondence
programs
that
partner
with
school
districts
– addi-onal
a
couple
of
programs
that
provide
for
connected
classrooms
or
blended
learning
• MOE
devolved
distance
educa-on
to
the
districts
about
a
decade
ago
– currently
no
regula-on

Ontario
• Primarily
district-­‐based
program
using
the
provincial
CMS
and
course
content
– coopera-on
between
boards
through
consor-ums
– Growing
number
of
private
schools
– Independent
Learning
Centre
• Ministry
has
created
contracts
that
districts
have
to
agree
to
in
order
to
par-cipate
in
online
learning
based
on
the
Provincial
E-­‐
Learning
Strategy

Manitoba
• Province
offers
three
forms
– MOE
manages
correspondence
&
instruc-onal
television
program
– districts
manage
their
own
web-­‐based
program
using
MOE
content
• MOE
approves
programs
and
regulates
the
use
of
their
distance
content
v
virtual
collegiate
pilot
program

Saskatchewan
• Primarily
district-­‐based
programs
– most
have
their
own
capacity
in
some
form
– sixteen
districts
provided
space
to
external
students
through
the
Saskatchewan
Distance
Learning
Course
Repository
• Province
devolved
responsibility
to
districts
– no
regula-on

Alberta
• ~23
district-­‐based,
several
private,
&
province-­‐
wide
programs
• MOE
has
no
specific
online
learning
policies
– reviewed
distributed
learning
around
2007-­‐09
– released
Inspiring
Ac7on
on
Educa7on
in
2011
– underwent
external
review
of
distance
educa-on
regula-on
&
ac-vity
around
2010-­‐12

Bri-sh
Columbia
• 76
programs
– 60
public
district-­‐based
– 16
independent
• Most
extensive
distributed
learning
regula-ons
– funding
follows
student
– quality
audit
process

Yukon
• Aurora
Virtual
School,
and
uses
programs
from
Bri-sh
Columbia
&
Alberta
– Watson
Lake
Secondary
School
blended
learning
project
• Primarily
regulated
by
Ministry
or
through
inter-­‐provincial
agreements

Northwest
Territories
• Pilot
being
conducted
involving
five
small
community
high
schools
across
three
regional
boards
of
educa-on
– u-lizes
programs
from
Alberta
• Primarily
regulated
by
Ministry
or
through
inter-­‐provincial
agreements

Nunavut
• U-lizes
program
from
Alberta
• Primarily
regulated
through
inter-­‐provincial
agreements
– development
of
a
ministerial
direc-ve
regarding
access
to
and
delivery
of
distance
educa-on
has
been
underway
since
2012

Federal
Programs
• Sporadic
programs
– two
in
Ontario
(Keeway-nook
Internet
High
School
and
Gai
hon
nya
ni:
the
Amos
Key
Jr.
E~Learning
Ins-tute),
one
in
Manitoba
Wapaskwa
Virtual
Collegiate),
and
one
in
Alberta
(SCcyber
E-­‐learning
Community)
– Credenda
Virtual
High
School
(Saskatchewan)
ceased
opera-ons
following
the
2012-­‐13
school
year
due
to
a
lack
of
funding
• No
longer
enter
into
service
agreements
directly
with
e-­‐learning
programs

Trends
-­‐
Growth

Trends
–
Beier
Data
Province/Territory # of K-12
students
# enroled in
distance
education
Percent involvement
NL 67,436 884 1.3%
NS 122,643 ~2,720 2.2%
PE 20,131 108 0.5%
NB 101,079 2615 2.6%
QC 1,307,026 ~70,5000 5.4%
ON 2,015,411 78,095 3.9%
MB 200,807 ~12,000 6.0%
SK 172,205 ~10,000
1
5.8%
AB 616,375 ~75,000 12.2%
BC 635,057 77,912 12.3%
YT 5,122 182 3.5%
NT 8,204 228 2.8%
NU 9,728 33 <0.1%
Federal 106,500 ~1,800 0.1%
Total 5,387,724 332,077 6.2%
!

Trends
–
Beier
Data
1. The
Saskatchewan
Ministry
of
Educa-on
provided
the
figure
of
2,611
students.
However,
based
on
previous
edi-ons
of
this
study,
the
Ministry
figure
ojen
represents
between
30%-­‐35%
of
the
total.

Trends
–
Beier
Data
• 26%
response
rate
in
2011
• 14%
response
rate
in
2012
• 21%
response
rate
in
2013

Trends
–
Blended
Learning
• more
than
a
third
of
the
enrollments
in
the
New
Brunswick
provincial
learning
management
system
are
from
classroom
teachers
and
students
using
the
content
in
a
blended
fashion
• while
the
Learn
program
in
Quebec
serves
approximately
5,300
students
engaged
in
its
distance
educa-on
program,
it
has
more
than
150,000
enrollments
from
classroom
teachers
and
students
using
asynchronous
course
content
• Bri-sh
Columbia’s
Navigate
Program
in
the
Courtenay/
Comox
school
district
received
iNACOL’s
2014
Innova-ve
Prac-ce
of
the
year
award

Trends
–
Suppor-ve
Unions
• NLTA
partnered
with
the
CDLI
to
create
a
Virtual
Teachers
Centre
to
use
the
infrastructure
and
exper-se
of
the
K-­‐12
online
learning
program
to
deliver
online
professional
development
• several
teacher
unions
have
invested
in
research
into
how
teaching
at
a
distance
differs
from
teaching
in
the
classroom,
and
what
impact
that
has
on
the
workload
and
quality
of
life
of
their
members
who
teach
at
a
distance
(e.g.,
ATA
&
BCTF)
• NSTU
has
11
provisions
related
to
distance
educa-on
in
its
contract
that
focus
on
teacher
cer-fica-on,
workload
issues,
defini-on
of
a
school
day
for
DE,
school-­‐based
supervision
and
administra-on
of
DE
students,
DE
class
size,
professional
development,
and
governance
of
DE
programs

Trends
–
More
Research
• beyond
a
small
number
of
descrip-ve
and/or
overview
pieces,
there
is
very
liile
research
• BCTF
-­‐
an
effort
to
understand
what
K-­‐12
distance,
online
and
blended
learning
mean
for
its
members
and
the
nature
of
their
work
life
• MUN
-­‐
two
federally
funded
ini-a-ves:
1. the
Centre
for
TeleLearning
and
Rural
Educa-on
2. the
Killick
Centre
for
E-­‐Learning
Research

Your
Ques-ons
and
Comments

Director
of
Doctoral
Studies
Sacred
Heart
University,
USA
mkbarbour@gmail.com
hip://www.michaelbarbour.com