In addition to the State of the Nation: K-12 E-Learning in Canada research initiative, CANeLearn is also involved in a number of individual research projects, some directly commissioned by CANeLearn or partner organizations.
In February 2021 the Canadian eLearning Network (CANeLearn) began engaging educators across Canada in facilitated conversations about teaching in online learning environments. While the process began in British Columbia (BC) (Crichton & Kinsel, 2021), the confirmation of the derived “design principles” were shared with participants across Canada in both anglophone and francophone online programs. The resulting modified design principles from the national validation process were published by CANeLearn in February 2022 (Crichton & Childs, 2022). However, the concept of using design principles to describe the practice of K-12 online learning is relatively new so CANeLearn invited K-12 researchers to examine a variety of standards related to K-12 online learning in an effort to situate them within the CANeLearn design principles. After the analysis was completed it was found that, at best, the design principles set a context or process while the NSQOL and QM standards described an observable outcome or action. As such, it was suggested that standards could offer examples that could be used to support the Design Principles for K-12 Online Learning. Additional research needs to be done to explore that notion as well as the relationship of CANeLearn’s Design Principles for K-12 Online Learning to other prevalent researched models of online learning. This report has been published with the intention to lay that foundation.
En janvier 2023, LEARN a engagé le Réseau canadien de l’apprentissage virtuel (CANeLearn.net) pour mener une évaluation indépendante du programme. CANeLearn a obtenu l’avis des parents d’enfants participant au programme afin de déterminer dans quelle mesure le tutorat en ligne de LEARN répondait à leurs besoins et comment le programme pouvait être amélioré. Un sondage a été développé et réalisé par CANeLearn. Ce sondage a ensuite été distribué en anglais et en français aux parents d’enfants impliqués dans le programme de tutorat par LEARN. Les résultats ont été directement recueillis et utilisés par CANeLearn pour créer ce rapport sur l’efficacité du programme et pour analyser l’impact du programme de tutorat sur la réussite de l’apprentissage, la motivation et la confiance des élèves. Les résultats du sondage ont également été examinés en tenant compte des dernières recherches sur le tutorat et une explication des résultats se trouve à la fin de ce rapport.
Cliquez ici pour consulter le rapport
In January 2023, LEARN mandated the Canadian eLearning Network (CANeLearn.net) to conduct an independent assessment of the program. CANeLearn sought the input of parents with children in the program to help determine how LEARN’s online tutoring met their child’s needs and how the program might be improved. A 10-question survey was developed by CANeLearn, administered by LEARN, and the results were used by CANeLearn for analysis to create generalizations about the service as part of a report to LEARN on the program’s effectiveness and ability to address its impact on student learning success, motivation, and confidence in learning.
En avril 2020, la pandémie de COVID-19 a contraint toutes les écoles du Canada à mettre en place un enseignement d’urgence à distance pour leurs apprenants de la maternelle à la 12e année. Au cours des deux dernières années et demie, le CANeLearn a documenté l’impact de la pandémie sur l’enseignement de la maternelle à la 12e année. Ce rapport, le dernier de la ” Série sur la pédagogie en cas de pandémie “, donne un aperçu national de chaque phase de la réponse éducative de la maternelle à la 12e année à la pandémie, depuis la fermeture initiale et immédiate des écoles au printemps 2020 jusqu’aux années scolaires 2020-21 et 2021-22, ainsi qu’un résumé de la réponse pédagogique à la pandémie pour chaque province, chaque territoire et la juridiction fédérale. Il fait valoir que nous ne devrions pas simplement revenir à nos pratiques d’enseignement et d’apprentissage d’avant le virus, en oubliant l’enseignement à distance, car les paysages de l’enseignement et de l’apprentissage ne sont pas dichotomiques, apprentissage en personne ou apprentissage en ligne. Aujourd’hui, l’enseignement et l’apprentissage exigent plutôt la flexibilité nécessaire pour naviguer simultanément dans plusieurs paysages d’apprentissage. Pourtant, peu de juridictions, voire aucune, n’ont pris les mesures nécessaires pour que les enseignants et les écoles puissent passer de l’apprentissage en personne à l’apprentissage à distance sans perte de quantité ou de qualité de l’enseignement.
In April 2020 of the COVID-19 pandemic forced all of Canada’s schools to begin emergency remote teaching for their K-12 learners. Over the past two and a half years the CANeLearn has documented the impact of the pandemic on K-12 schooling. This final report in the “Pandemic Pedagogy Series” provides a national overview of each phase of the K-12 educational response to the pandemic from the initial and immediate school closures in Spring 2020 through the 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years along with a summary of the pandemic pedagogical response for each province, territory, and the federal jurisdiction. It argues that we should not simply return to our teaching and learning practices prior to the virus, forgetting about remote teaching, as teaching and learning landscapes are not dichotomous, in-person learning or online learning. Rather, teaching and learning today requires the flexibility to navigate multiple learning landscapes simultaneously, yet few, if any, jurisdictions have taken the steps necessary to ensure that teachers and schools can toggle between in-person learning and remote learning with no loss of instructional quantity or quality.
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 and those who came to online education during the COVID-19 Pandemic.
In November 2021 the study was expanded to include educators from across Canada. This study builds on the BC findings, using many of the same processes and approaches to assess the efficacy of the initial Design Principles for K-12 Online Learning in the broader Canadian context. The confirmation of the principles from participants across Canada in both anglophone and francophone online programs is an important step in ensuring the principles can serve as a framework for conversations about online learning design, needed support, and implementation strategies.
CANeLearn’s next step in the iteration of the design principle work is to engage a wider audience including classroom educators, researchers, and education leaders from government and teacher education programs in shaping the principles to improve online learning practices. It is CANeLearn’s intention and hope that the design principles continue to serve as a guide for educator practice as well as a foundation for the development of professional learning experiences offered through school jurisdictions, post-secondary teacher education programs, and other organizations.
We encourage others to build on this work and share it with their education communities.
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 sixth report consolidates details found in the previous reports (see below) that provided a summary of the publicly announced accommodations made to ensure continuity of learning during the pandemic.
This summary report goes further, describing the face-to-face, online, remote, and hybrid learning options provided across Canada. It offers comparison and analysis of the different learning models used in the provinces and territories, ending with a glimpse at the challenges and issues beginning in the 2021-22 school year.
Report No.6 ~ Pandemic Pedagogy in Canada: Lessons from the First 18 Months
See also a special report of the State of the Nation: K-12 E-Learning in Canada project that argues the importance of avoiding equating emergency remote teaching and remote learning with online learning. The report offers recommendations for how schools can be better prepared for future crises that incorporate both home-based and school-based learning opportunities mediated through online learning environments.
Understanding Pandemic Pedagogy: Differences Between Emergency Remote, Remote, and Online Teaching
Other reports in the CANeLearn pandemic series summarize the decisions and announcements made by each Canadian jurisdiction made for the continuation of learning throughout the pandemic during Spring 2020, Fall 2020, the full 2020-21 school year, as well chronicle the voices of those affected by the pandemic.
Toggling between Lockdowns: Canadian Responses for Continuity of Learning in the 2020-21 School Year
A Fall Like No Other: Stories from the Field
A Fall Like No Other: Between Basics and Preparing for an Extended Transition During Turmoil
Documenting Triage: Detailing the Response of Provinces and Territories to Emergency Remote Teaching
All reports are also published on the Pandemic Pedagogy project website at:
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 and those who came to online education during the COVID-19 Pandemic.
The study began in British Columbia (BC) so that results could inform the work of the BC Ministry of Education’s Quality Panel in its development of a quality assurance process for online learning in the province. While the primary audience of the initial study in BC was to inform teacher’s and education leader’s practices, administrative policy can also be informed by principles of effective teaching and learning practice as well. . Accordingly, the initial launch of the study in BC was the elucidation and clarification of design and organization principles to help inform the Framework for Quality Online Learning in BC[1].
[1] At the time of publication, the Framework for Quality Online Learning in BC document remains in press and is not published.
Le Centre francophone d’éducation à distance (CFÉD) de l’Alberta a demandé une étude de parité ou d’équité entre les services d’éducation à distance offerts par fournisseurs dans les communautés de langue minoritaire en dehors de la province et ce, en considération des programmes, des ressources humaines, des modèles de financement et des services offerts et de l’appui gouvernemental fourni à chacune de ces entités. L’information tirée de l’étude sera inclus dans l’état de la nation recherche.
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.
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.
