This document summarizes Canada's responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in K-12 education over the first 18 months. It describes the different learning models used, including temporary remote learning and more purposeful online learning. It outlines the plans that various Canadian jurisdictions implemented for the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 school years, noting differences in remote learning options and preparation. It concludes by posing questions about what the future may hold for distance, online, and blended learning following the lessons of the pandemic.

1. Randy LaBonte, Canadian elearning Network
Michael Barbour,Touro University California
Joelle Nagle, University ofWindsor
Pandemic Pedagogy in Canada:
Lessons from the first 18 months

4. Remote Learning
Various learning models available during the 2020-21 school year
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA
• Temporary “pivot” of
instructional delivery
• Shifting teaching solutions
designed for face-to-face
• Primary objective to provide
temporary instructional access
during a sudden closure
• Instruction not specifically
designed for remote access

5. Online Learning
Various learning models available during the 2020-21 school year
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC
• Purposeful planning/pedagogy
• Systematic
• Administration
• Course development
• Support
• Selection of tools
• Consideration of medium
affordances/challenges
• Specific teacher training

6. Learning Models
Canadian Responses for Continuity in Learning 2020-21
• Several jurisdictions offered remote learning for those not wanting
to attend in-class learning, such as Ontario, which offered a
“virtual school” for full-time remote learning and hybrid learning
for secondary school (quadmester)
• Expectations for remote learning either as a full-time option or
during lockdown were the same as a regular school year
• While curriculum, assessments, and reporting continued,
standardized testing was either cancelled or deemed optional

7. Highlights
Jurisdictional Plans for the 2021-2022 School Year
• All jurisdictions began the 2021-2022 school year with plans for a
normal or pre-pandemic normal as possible, with some
jurisdictions removing the enhanced health and safety protocols,
such as masks
• Many jurisdictions no longer offered remote learning as an option
with the alternative being to leave the school and attend either
homeschooling or remote learning from other institutions (such as
British Columbia)

8. Highlights
Jurisdictional Plans for the 2021-2022 School Year
• Some jurisdictions, such as Ontario and their “virtual school,”
continued with a remote option for children who remained fully
remote
• Many jurisdictions continued to offer remote learning during an
emergency should there be high risk exposure to COVID-19
• Individual classes were sent home or whole schools closed and
returned to remote learning during a 14 day quarantine

9. National Overview
Various learning models available during the 2020-21 school year

11. Toggling Along
Time lost to province-wide school closures for each province or territory across Canada for the 2020-21 school year
While teachers were unprepared Spring 2020 for remote learning,
some jurisdictions were better positioned for continuity of learning
in 2020-21 and at the start of September 2021
• NS provided one week of specific teacher training Jan’21
• BC delayed implementing new policies to ensure existing
online program continued to operate and expand capacities
• QC launched an online program for all anglophone students
with medical exemptions, learning from home, Sep’21

12. Toggling Along
Time lost to province-wide school closures for each province or territory across Canada for the 2020-21 school year
Necessary preparation for expected Phase 3 ‘toggle’?
Responses:
• Some jurisdictions closed individual schools only
• Others locked down all schools for 14 to 16 weeks
• Some provided robust online learning programs
• Others relied on remote learning
Result?
• Inequitable learning experiences
• Varied policies, plans, and practices – only some successful

13. National Overview
Time lost to province-wide school closures for each province or territory across Canada for the 2020-21 school year

14. Toggling Along
Fall 2021 LearningOptions byJurisdiction

15. Toggling Along
Fall 2021Jurisdiction Preparations and Differences
Fall 2021 preparations signalling a toggle:
• BC continued to delay changes to online learning programs
which enabled many students enrol and learn from home
• Nova Scotia launched 2021 with most parents reporting reliable
bandwidth and with upskilled teachers using the provincial
online tools and curriculum resources
• Ontario launched with a concurrent teaching hybrid model
• Arguably, they all had the ability to ‘toggle’ and adapt to
changing circumstances as described in Phase 3

16. Toggling Along
Fall 2021Jurisdiction Preparations and Differences
Given the pandemic epidemiological realities, the school year will
be another toggling between in-person and remote learning:
• Within two months school closures and remote learning have
returned due to local/regional outbreaks from Newfoundland
and Labrador to British Columbia and the Northwest Territories
• Some of the differences in policy and practice that have
emerged must be guides for politicians and policymakers to
grapple with the demands of another toggle school year

17. Toward a ‘New Normal’
What does our future hold?
1. What will the K-12 distance, online, and blended learning
landscape look like?
2. How will the remote learning lessons of the pandemic inform
policy and practice in the future?
3. What will politicians and policymakers take away from the past
18 months to guide short-term and long-term school closures
during the next disaster?
These questions highlight the need to continue this line of
inquiry, shaping future research for CANeLearn consideration.

18. Remote Learning: How did we make out?
Policy & Practice:Toggling forward to our ‘New Normal’
Future
Research
Photo by Maximilian Scheffler on Unsplash

19. https://sites.google.com/view/canelearn-ert/
Access our Research Reports

20. Pandemic Pedagogy in Canada:
Lessons from the first 18 months
Randy LaBonte, Canadian elearning Network
Michael Barbour,Touro University California
Joelle Nagle, University ofWindsor