The CANeLearn board wishes you a safe and happy holiday break.  Our December newsletter provides event updates, news, and a curated list of research and articles for your winter respite, beach-bound, hill-bound, or home-bound!

We continue to ask you to add your voice to our news, blog, Twitter feed, and Facebook page, and we invite you to share your stories with us.

Photo by Ruvim Miksanskiy from Pexels

Featured Events

CANeLearn – BC Partners Digital Learning Symposium

April 7-9 in Vancouver

Early Bird rates end Friday, December 22nd!

Theme: “Fostering Inquiry: Personal Learning in Digital Environments”

Featuring EdTechTeam, Microsoft Education & Skills session

Discounts for members and groups

Non-member and attending?  Join CANeLearn for the same price!

https://new.canelearn.net/symposium19

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2019 BOLTT (Bringing Online Teachers Together)

May 9-10 in Ottawa

Optional evening keynote address

Full day skill building event

http://www.boltt.ca/

More info at http://www.boltt.ca/ottawa-spring-conference/

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Canadian Network for Innovation in Education (CNIE) Conference 2019 – Making Waves: Educational Disruptions and Transformations

May 21-24, 2019 | Vancouver, British Columbia

More information here https://cnie2019.arts.ubc.ca/

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• Check out pictures from the 2018 BOLTT event in Toronto on CANeLearn’s Facebook page here
• Check out pictures from Alberta’s BlendED2018 Symposium on CANeLearn’s Facebook page here
• Check out video archives from Alberta’s BlendED2018 Symposium on CANeLearn’s YouTube Channel here

Bookmark for your holiday reading…

Education Starts with Research

• Check out new publications from the Michigan Virtual Learning Research Institute
• MVLRI’s research provides a foundation to examine, engage and explore educational practices in the industry
• Search the repository here

Digital Learning Collaborative: Online learning for Pre-K children

• Check out this post from MVLRI’s Kathryn Kennedy on the UPSTART program from the Waterford Institute – now in its fifth year.
• The program helps children who have transportation issues or educational options in their area; children whose families cannot afford pre-school options; children whose families would rather not send their young child to school; and children who speak English as a second language or need language support.
• Check out the post on the new Digital Learning Collaborative here.

Power Up Blended Learning: A Professional Learning Infrastructure to Support Sustainable Change

• This book presents multiple options for blended learning professional development with a focus on coaching and infrastructure support.
• Caitlin Tucker, keynote at the 2017 blendED Alberta, offers a clear explanation of the ‘what, ‘ a compelling rationale for the ‘why, ‘ and tangible guidelines for the ‘how’ of professional learning to enable and support blended learning.
• See the post on TeachOnline.ca or see Tucker, C.R. (2018). Power Up Blended Learning: A Professional Learning Infrastructure to Support Sustainable Change. California: Corwin.

Ten Successful Ways Institutions Around the World are Addressing the Challenge of Retention Rates in Online Learning

• Retention and completion in online learning programs and courses, especially in institutions which practice open admission, has long been a concern. The costs of non-completion – dropout, repeated renewals of learning contracts, course repeats – are expensive for both learners and institutions.
• A recent study found that graduation rates are higher in Canada than in the US.
• In online learning, completion rates vary between 70-95%, but fall dramatically when admission to a program or course is open to all who wish to take it.
• Find out implications from this study for online K-12 programs – read more here

Nashua School District Studying Replacing Subs With Online Learning

• Nashua School District struggles to find and retain enough substitute teachers for its classrooms.
• A group of teachers proposed the idea of creating digital learning centers in Nashua’s two high schools where students could gather to complete their schoolwork online that would eliminate the need for subs at all.
• Read more here

10 Tips for Effective Online Discussions

• These tips can help educators ensure that online discussions are engaging and beneficial for postsecondary students.
• Read more here

Increasing Interpersonal Interactions in an Online Course: Does Increased Instructor Email Activity and Voluntary Meeting Time in a Physical Classroom Facilitate Student Learning?

• This study examines the effect of providing a voluntary in-person meeting time in a physical classroom and increasing instructor email activity in a fully online precalculus course at a public university.
• Download a copy here

Special Report: Funding and Resourcing of Distributed Learning in Canada

• The State of the Nation and CANeLearn research team has published a new policy brief on funding for online programs
• The brief examines the nature of distributed learning funding in British Columbia and how that compares to other jurisdictions in Canada and the United States
• Click here to view or download

Teaching Online or Hoarding Frogs in a Wheel Barrow

Why do students sometimes stumble right out of the gate, fall through the cracks midstream, or abandon course just when the finish line is in sight?

• Check out @OeLCCoordinator, Todd Pottle and CANeLearn Director’s, blog post on CANeLearn’s blog