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This site hosts critical Information for teachers and education leaders to navigate the dynamic and sometimes volatile impact of artificial intelligence (AI) in education.  This is an active site with new updates listed on the home page.

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Welcome to the Canadian eLearning Network (CANeLearn) Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Education website! This site hosts critical Information for teachers and education leaders to navigate the dynamic and sometimes volatile impact of artificial intelligence (AI) in education. This is an

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Design Principles for K-12 Online Learning

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Design Principles for K-12 Online Learning

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In February 2021 the Canadian eLearning Network (CANeLearn) began engaging educators across Canada in facilitated conversations about teaching in online learning environments.  The purpose of the CANeLearn study was to gain an understanding of the lived experiences of online educators with eight principles identified and validated by participants across Canada in both anglophone and francophone online programs.  Full report here

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Design Principles for K-12 Online Learning

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Cross-Canada Roundup: K-12 Provincial e-Learning Changes 2022-23 School Year

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Cross-Canada Roundup: K-12 Provincial e-Learning Changes 2022-23 School Year

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Awareness, understanding, and the role of online learning environments have expanded rapidly since “emergency remote teaching” was thrust upon the entire K-12 system during COVID. While much of the practice that resulted has been criticized, the benefits of centralizing online learning opportunities were not lost on governments and school district senior managers. As well, many parents were exposed to the benefits of e-learning. Below is a description of that centralization movement across Canada.

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State of the nation study: K-12 e-learning in Canada. Canadian eLearning Network

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State of the nation study: K-12 e-learning in Canada. Canadian eLearning Network

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The 15th issue of the annual State of the Nation: K-12 e-Learning in Canada study describes the
changes that have occurred in relation to e-learning governance and activity over the past year.
Jurisdictional profiles describe activity and nature of governance for each province and territory,
as well as for Indigenous programs under federal jurisdiction. Like previous publications, this
issue describes only changes that have occurred in relation to the governance and e-learning
activity while full jurisdictional profiles remain on the project research website. It also provides a
summary of the remote learning that continued through the 2021-22 school year drawn from the
Canadian eLearning Network’s “Remote Learning Research Project,” which was designed to
delineate how each jurisdiction managed their response to the pandemic and school closures.

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L’état de l’apprentissage électronique de la maternelle à la 12e année au Canada

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L’état de l’apprentissage électronique de la maternelle à la 12e année au Canada

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La 15e édition du rapport sur la situation nationale du e-learning en M-12 au Canada décrit les
changements survenus en matière de gouvernance et d'activités d'apprentissage en ligne au cours
de la dernière année. Les profils juridictionnels décrivent l'activité et la nature de la gouvernance
de chaque province et territoire, ainsi que pour les programmes autochtones de compétence
fédérale. Cette édition ne décrit que les changements survenus en ce qui a trait à la gouvernance
et en apprentissage en ligne incluant des profils juridictionnels complets qui sont aussi
disponibles sur le site Web du projet. Elle fournit également des descriptions de l'apprentissage à
distance s'est poursuivi jusqu'à l'année scolaire 2021-2022, tirées du « Projet de recherche sur
l'apprentissage à distance » du Réseau canadien de l'apprentissage virtuel, qui a été conçu pour
décrire comment chaque juridiction a géré sa réponse pandémique et les fermetures d'écoles.

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CANeLearn - The Canadian eLearning Network

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Education that Works for You - Modernizing Classrooms is a proposed policy from the Ontario government. While the original announcement covers several other changes, specific to e-learning the proposal calls for:

E-learning
The government is committed to modernizing education and supporting students and families in innovative ways that enhance their success. A link to e-learning courses can be found here: www.edu.gov.on.ca/elearning/courses.html.

Starting in 2020-21, the government will centralize the delivery of all e-learning courses to allow students greater access to programming and educational opportunities, no matter where they live in Ontario.

Secondary students will take a minimum of four e-learning credits out of the 30 credits needed to fulfill the requirements for achieving an Ontario Secondary School Diploma. That is equivalent to one credit per year, with exemptions for some students on an individualized basis. These changes will be phased in, starting in 2020-21.

With these additional modernizations, the secondary program enhancement grant will no longer be required.

As you might imagine, the announcement sparked considerable discussion and debate in both mainstream and social media channels. Unfortunately, a lot of the commentary included many discredited myths (see " Top 10 Myths about Online Learning " for some of the myths), misinformation, and pitted e-learning against classroom-based learning.

CANeLearn posted a series of blog entries in relation to the policy announcement which are summarized below with links to each entry. Also posted was an interview with CANeLearn's CEO, Randy LaBonte, featured on "The Agenda with Steve Paikin" in a segment entitled "How to Learn Online."

CANeLearn Responds

As the leading voice in Canada for K-12 online and blended learning, CANeLearn has consolidated research related to the e-learning announcement's reaction in a series of blog posts.

First, CANeLearn believes all students can be successful in an e-learning environment (see https://canelearn.net/repost-ontario-e-learning-graduation-requirement-student-success/ for details), so we wish to dispel the notion that e-learning is inferior to classroom learning. It is simply another learning environment teachers can leverage to support and engage students - just as a makerspace, a library, a metal or wood shop, or any other place where teachers can structure and manage learning opportunities. Structure, support, and teacher presence are the critical ingredients for success in any learning environment, and online is not excluded from this.

Second, the government's announcement of four graduation credits required to be via e-learning amidst per-student funding reductions that boards of education will receive in the next school year could create serious challenges for maintaining the level of quality instruction currently provided through Ontario's e-learning programs. Until the details for implementation of this mandate are clear, it is difficult to speculate the impact of the announcement. However, there are some specific issues that are pertinent to its implementation that CANeLearn has outlined:

1. Ontario already has a highly centralized system with delivery decentralized at the local level for maximum benefit

Centralized learning management system (LMS) licensed for use by all teachers and content provided by the Ministry

Technology-Enabled Learning Coordinators provided for every board by the Ministry

Three provincial consortia to support effective delivery and student access

Local teachers in schools provide instruction, in close proximity to local online students

Research on centralized and decentralized e-learning indicates both are successful in Canada, but the design, delivery, and support for e-learning determines success (see more at https://canelearn.net/repost-ontario-centralized-e-learning-program/ )

We are puzzled by what is meant by "centralize the delivery of all e-learning courses to allow students greater access" and how that might affect the successful consortium delivery models underway in the province

2. Four course/credit e-learning graduation requirement has not been seen elsewhere

None of the other Canadian jurisdictions have any form of e-learning requirement

Only six US states have some form of online learning graduation requirement, but typically only for one online course

e-Learning is typically used to support students who are not able to complete required courses or those of interest in a regular classroom - not to replace classroom instruction (see more at https://canelearn.net/repost-ontario-modernizing-classrooms/ )

The question is, what is the purpose for the 10-fold increase in e-learning? Is it to save money or to improve access? Which leads to the question of scalability and timing for implementation

3. The scalability challenge is huge and likely to impact quality without significant resourcing

A four-course requirement for all secondary students in the province would mean an increase from 50,000-60,000 students in e-learning to over 600,000 taking e-learning courses

The existing system would need to scale by more than 10 times requiring a significant investment in technology access and connectivity and a 10-fold increase in local supports (see more at https://canelearn.net/repost-ontario-e-learning-graduation-requirement-scalability/ )

So, the concern about scalability leads to the question of the quality of the instruction, but more importantly the learning opportunities afforded for all students. How will they be able to access learning opportunities remotely without access to technology or proper internet connectivity? How will they be supported when learning online?

4. The old model of distance education delivery (often referred to as the legacy model), which relied on content delivery, assignment completion, and information recall testing, lacked success. It relied on a centralized teacher with remote students accessing online courses, typically on their own without local support.

Legacy distance education models had course completion rates that on average ranged from a high of ~70% and a low of 50% (Winkelmans, Anderson, & Barbour, 2010), with some programs reporting rates as low as 20% (Sweet, 1991)

Ontario's existing model has local support and access to courses with completion rates comparable to or better than classroom-based courses (up to 94% completion in some consortium models)

Most distance learning programs in Canada have shifted away from a legacy model to community-based programs with active local technology and learning support for students (see more at https://canelearn.net/what-does-online-learning-really-look-like/ )

The e-Learning Ontario Master User Agreement specifies that local support must be in place for any e-learning (http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/elearning/MasterUserAgreement.pdf)

Successful e-learning models favour a reallocation of resources and funding, not a reduction

The concern we have is that should the Ontario government's e-learning course requirement implementation plan rely on earlier models of distance education, the quality and success of e-learning in the province could well be undermined.

We hope to hear more in the future as e-learning educators and leaders consult with the Ministry to share similar concerns and map out a way to address the mandate without loss of quality in the current e-learning programs.

If you have any questions about these, or any other issues, please contact CANeLearn CEO - Randy LaBonte - at rlabonte@canelearn.net

For more information and data about e-learning in Ontario, visit https://k12sotn.ca/on/

References:

Sweet, R. (1991). Canadian proprietary correspondence schools: Some issues of access and technology. International Journal of E-Learning & Distance Education, 6(1), 42-63. Retrieved from http://www.ijede.ca/index.php/jde/article/viewArticle/393/283

Winkelmans, T., Anderson, B., & Barbour, M. (2010). Distributed learning in British Columbia: A journey from correspondence to online delivery. Journal of Open, Flexible, and Distance Learning, 14(1), 6-28. Retrieved from http://jofdl.nz/index.php/JOFDL/article/view/29

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CANeLearn: Ontario eLearning Announcement Backgrounder - CANeLearn

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Education that Works for You - Modernizing Classrooms is a proposed policy from the Ontario government. While the original announcement covers several other changes, specific to e-learning the proposal calls for:E-learningThe government is committed to modernizing education and supporting students and families in innovative ways that enhance their success.

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In March 2019, the Government of Ontario unveiled its vision for education through a policy entitled Education that Works for You – Modernizing Classrooms. The Government
also engaged in a public consultation around class sizes that would increase the class size limit for face-to-face courses to 28 students and increase the limit for e-learning courses to 35 students. The goal of this report is to examine the literature related to e-learning class size in Canada and internationally.

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Sense of irony or perfect timing: Examining the research supporting proposed e-learning changes in Ontario

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Sense of irony or perfect timing: Examining the research supporting proposed e-learning changes in Ontario

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Only weeks before the 2019 annual meeting of the American Education Research Association (AERA) was held in Toronto, Ontario, the provincial government announced a major reform of education for that province entitled "Education that Works for You -- Modernizing Classrooms". From an e-learning perspective the proposal called for a centralization of e-learning, a graduation requirement of four elearning courses, and increasing the class size limit for e-learning courses to 35 students.

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Understanding pandemic pedagogy: Differences between emergency remote, remote, and online teaching

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Understanding pandemic pedagogy: Differences between emergency remote, remote, and online teaching

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In the spring of 2020, the term ‘emergency remote teaching’ began to emerge to describe what was occurring in education at all levels, despite the more commonly used term “online learning” dominating media descriptions of the instruction offered to students forced to remain at home.
Hodges et al. (2020) described emergency remote teaching as an attempt not “to re-create a robust educational ecosystem but rather to provide temporary access to instruction and instructional supports in a manner that is quick to set up and is reliably available during an
emergency or crisis” (¶ 13).

This report is a collection of revised works from other scholars, primarily focused on the higher education context, adapted for the K-12 sector.

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Teacher Education and K-12 Online Learning

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Teacher Education and K-12 Online Learning

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K-12 online learning continues to grow in popularity and acceptance in North America. Canada, in particular, continues to expand with over 300,000 students being enrolled in distance and online programs in 2019. Despite this rapid growth, there does not appear to be much recognition of this form of learning by institutions in Canada that provide teacher training programs. Understandably, programming changes take time to adjust to workplace needs. This
report highlights the status of teacher education programs with regard to provision of distance and online field experiences by Canadian teacher education programs.

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Panorama des pratiques de diffusion de la formation à distance au Canada francophone (research report)

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Panorama des pratiques de diffusion de la formation à distance au Canada francophone (research report)

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Le Réseau d’enseignement francophone à distance du Canada (REFAD) entreprend une étude dressera un portrait global de la diversité des formules de cours en ligne au Canada francophone dans trois ordres d’enseignement (i.e., secondaire, collégial et universitaire).  L’objectif de la présente étude consiste à faire un bilan de cette diversité afin de mettre en commun les pratiques exemplaires autant que les défis et les exemples de cas susceptibles de faire progresser la réflexion et la démarche d’ensemble en francophone à distance au Canada français.

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State of Evaluation and Digital Technology Research Brief

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State of Evaluation and Digital Technology Research Brief

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Leading English Education and Resource Network (LEARN), a non-profit organization that primarily serves the public and private Anglophone, Aboriginal, Youth and Adult Education sectors of Québec, requested a brief on the current practice in the use of digital technology in formative and summative evaluation. The brief focused on issues and challenges faced when implementing a program where digital technology replaces traditional pen and paper evaluation. This brief provided a synthesis of the research conducted for the review. Scope of the research included hardware, software and cloud-based assessment solutions, practices and policy related to evaluation and digital technology.

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The CANeLearn report series highlights the announcements, supports, and policy changes each Canadian jurisdiction made to continue to promote learning throughout the pandemic, starting in Spring 2020. The above site includes presentation archives in addition to copies of the reports that are also published on the CANeLearn website.

The sixth report consolidates details found in the previous reports that provided a summary of the publicly announced accommodations made to ensure continuity of learning during the pandemic.  This summary report compares and analyses the different learning models used in the provinces and territories.

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Welcome to CANeLearn’s Pandemic Pedagogy Research Site

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Publications & Presentations – State of the Nation: K-12 E-Learning in Canada