Publications by Michael Barbour
In light of current or future pandemics, natural disasters, war, or personal preferences, remote ... more In light of current or future pandemics, natural disasters, war, or personal preferences, remote or online learning is becoming increasingly common. This reality means that teachers need to be equipped with the skills necessary to effectively teach online. In this article the authors highlight the importance of preparing teachers with effective online teaching skills and knowledge, and suggest two areas for improvement: (1) research support for scholars to build a knowledge base to better understand effective online teaching, and (2) changes to teacher preparation programmes to better equip teachers for this changing reality. Before presenting these recommendations, a brief discussion of the state of online learning globally at the primary and secondary level (commonly referred to as K-12), as well as the limitations of existing teacher education, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic is provided.
This invited article provides a comprehensive overview of the history and development of distance... more This invited article provides a comprehensive overview of the history and development of distance learning in Aotearoa New Zealand's school sector over the past century. It begins with a discussion of creating a common language to describe distance learning. The article then transitions to its main focus on the history of distance learning-tracing the evolution from The Correspondence School's establishment in 1922 to serve rural students, through technological advancements that include radio, television, and online learning. Key milestones are highlighted, such as the formation of early e-learning clusters, the Virtual Learning Network, and urban-based "school loops". The transformation of The Correspondence School into Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu and its adoption of digital technologies are discussed. The article also covers government initiatives, consultations, and legislative changes aimed at supporting and regulating distance learning, including the shortlived concept of Communities of Online Learning. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on distance learning is addressed. Throughout, the article emphasises ongoing challenges of sustainability, equity, and quality in distance education, as well as continuing efforts to adapt to technological changes and meet diverse student needs in Aotearoa New Zealand's education system.
The 15th issue of the annual State of the Nation: K-12 e-Learning in Canada study describes the c... more 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.
Distance or online learning enrollment remained stable across the country, with many jurisdictions reporting an increase in the number of students enrolled in programs. Western Canada still has the largest level of student participation in online programs, while Atlantic Canada has the lowest level of participation. For the most part the school year still was impacted by the pandemic with school closures and remote learning – not online learning – as it was still viewed as temporary in nature. It remained an attempt to project a classroom instructional model to students at a distance with limited success.
During the 2021-22 school year, several jurisdictions experienced changes in their online programs regulatory framework or practices. In Québec there were 56 distance learning pilot projects, spread over 39 educational establishments and organizations with at least 1500 students involved. Ontario saw significant changes as the massive increase in e-learning with implementation of the two mandatory online courses saw the Ontario eLearning Consortium grow to include all but five of the public and Catholic school boards, with a subsequent increase in consortium staffing. Following a comprehensive review of the K-12 education system by the Manitoba Commission on K to 12 Education that concluded in March 2020, the Ministry released an action plan report that included an online high school to enhance access to programming and learning across the province. In Alberta the Funding Manual for School Authorities was further revised to account for – and even encourage – enrollment of students from other school authorities. In British Columbia, full implementation of the July, 2021 legislative changes were extended to July 2023 with interim agreements between the Ministry and school districts governed the now designated online schools for the 2021-22 school year.
The State of the Nation: K-12 e-Learning in Canada report, and its accompanying publications on its project website, provides critical information and insight into how Canadian educational authorities and governments are integrating technology-supported approaches to prepare students for today’s economy and a future society in which the use of technology will be ubiquitous. The report and website provide a benchmark for educators and offers background, guidance, and ideas for the improvement of policy and practice in online and blended learning.
Moore, S., Veletsianos, G., & Barbour, M. K. (2022). A synthesis of research on mental health and... more Moore, S., Veletsianos, G., & Barbour, M. K. (2022). A synthesis of research on mental health and remote learning: How the questionable-cause logical fallacy and modality scapegoating are obscuring useful insights. The Open/Technology in Education, Society, and Scholarship Association Journal, 1(1).
While there has been a lot of debate over the impact of online and remote learning on mental health and well-being, there has been no systematic syntheses or reviews of the research on this particular issue. In this paper, we review the research on the relationship between mental health/well-being and online or remote learning. Our review shows that little scholarship existed prior to 2020 with most studies conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic. We report four findings: (1) pandemic effects are not well-controlled in most studies; (2) studies present a very mixed picture, with variability around how mental health and wellbeing are measured and how/whether any causal inferences are made in relation to online and remote learning, (3) there are some indications that certain populations of students may struggle more in an online context, and (4) research that does not assume a direct relationship between mental health and online provides the best insight into both confounding factors and possible strategies to address mental health concerns. Our review shows that 75.5% of published research on this topic either commits the correlation does not equal causation error or asserts a causal relationship even when it fails to establish correlations. Based on this study, we suggest that researchers, policymakers, practitioners, and administrators exercise extreme caution around making generalizable assertions with respect to the impacts of online/remote learning and mental health. We encourage further research to better understand effects on specific learner subpopulations and on course-and institution-level strategies to support mental health.
Barbour, M. K. (2022). 5 minutes on K-12 online learning with… A re-boot for educational leaders.... more Barbour, M. K. (2022). 5 minutes on K-12 online learning with… A re-boot for educational leaders. In E. Baumgartner, R. Kaplan-Rakowski, R. E. Ferdig, R. Hartshorne, & C. Mouza (Eds.). A Retrospective of Teaching, Technology, and Teacher Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic (pp. 65-70). Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education. https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/221522/
In March and April 2020, a series of interviews with veteran classroom and online teachers, independent evaluators, online school leaders, change agents, government officials, university faculty, and/or researchers were posted to the Virtual School Meanderings blog. Entitled “5 Minutes On K-12 Online Learning With…” the series was designed to provide advice to teachers on what to do to provide some form of continuity of learning or to parents on how to structure their child’s learning at home during the emergency remote learning that occurred in the Spring of 2020. Following this first series, in an effort to help school leaders plan for a disrupted school year that was inevitable, interviews were conducted with additional veteran school leaders, university researchers, and independent evaluators. The goal of this second series of “5 Minutes On K-12 Online Learning With…” was to ask them for guidance on (1) how to finish out the current school year and what impact that may have on how they open the coming school year, and (2) what to do to ensure that when the system has to shut down again due to local flare ups or a second wave, the toggle from in person learning to remote learning would be done in a more seamless way. Unfortunately, as most school and district leaders failed to adequately prepare for what has been two disrupted school years, this second series of “5 Minutes On K-12 Online Learning With…” likely had little impact on school leaders.
En avril 2020, la pandémie de COVID-19 a contraint toutes les écoles du Canada à mettre en place ... more 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 Réseau canadien d'apprentissage en ligne (CANeLearn) a documenté l'impact de la pandémie sur l'enseignement de la maternelle à la 12e année. Pour chacune des deux dernières années scolaires (c'est-à-dire 2020-21 et 2021-22), la plupart des écoles ont été contraintes de mettre en œuvre une combinaison d'enseignement en présentiel, hybride et/ou en ligne pour les étudiants, car la menace du COVID-19 persistait et les écoles devaient prendre des décisions sur la façon de poursuivre l'enseignement et l'apprentissage tout en assurant la sécurité de leurs enseignants, de leur personnel et de leurs étudiants. L'incertitude de la plupart des éducateurs quant à la manière de déplacer efficacement l'enseignement à distance de l'élève ou des élèves a clairement démontré que les écoles ne " pivotaient " pas vers l'apprentissage en ligne, la plupart diffusant simplement l'enseignement typique en classe par le biais d'un support en ligne.
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.
Ce rapport de synthèse fait valoir qu'une planification plus poussée et une attention délibérée doivent être accordées à la préparation des enseignants, à l'infrastructure, à la politique de l'éducation et aux ressources pour pouvoir maintenir une continuité pédagogique de qualité. Les rapports de la " Série sur la pédagogie en cas de pandémie " de CANeLearn, offrent des recommandations sur la façon dont les écoles peuvent être mieux préparées à des crises futures qui intègrent des possibilités d'apprentissage à la maison et à l'école par le biais d'environnements d'apprentissage en ligne.
Un site web a été créé pour accueillir la série de rapports, ainsi que des archives de présentations d'ateliers en ligne basées sur chaque rapport. Le site web est disponible à l'adresse suivante : https://sites.google.com/view/canelearn-ert/
In April 2020 of the COVID-19 pandemic forced all of Canada’s schools to begin emergency remote t... more 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 Canadian eLearning Network (CANeLearn) has documented the impact of the pandemic on K-12 schooling. For each of the past two school years (i.e., 2020-21 and 2021-22), most schools were forced to implement some combination of face-to-face, hybrid, and/or online instruction for students as the threat of COVID-19 continued and schools faced decisions about how to continue teaching and learning while keeping their teachers, staff, and students safe. The uncertainty of most educators in how to effectively shift instruction to be at a distance from the student(s) demonstrated clearly that schools were not ‘pivoting’ to online learning, most simply broadcast typical classroom instruction through an online medium.
This report, the final 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.
This summary report argues that more planning and deliberate attention must be provided to teacher preparation, infrastructure, education policy, and resources to be able to maintain quality instructional continuity. The “Pandemic Pedagogy Series” reports by CANeLearn offer 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 and there is a strong need to pursue this line of inquiry through continuing research beyond the confines of the seven reports in the series.
A website was created to host the report series, along with an archive of online workshop presentations based on each report available at https://sites.google.com/view/canelearn-ert/
In this paper the authors present a vision that by 2025 all teacher education programs will prepa... more In this paper the authors present a vision that by 2025 all teacher education programs will prepare teacher candidates with the knowledge, skills, and experience necessary to be successful teaching in online and blended modalities. The authors present evidence that all teachers need to be proficient in online and blended teaching, and they provide six objectives for teacher education programs to achieve that goal for pre-service teachers. Threats to each goal are discussed, as well as strategies for implementation.
While the use of distance and online learning had been used for over a century in the K-12 settin... more While the use of distance and online learning had been used for over a century in the K-12 setting (including in isolated ways during previous pandemics and natural disasters), the complete worldwide closure of schools focused attention on the use of distance and online tools and content to provide continuity of learning in a remote context. The way in which both practitioners and scholars make sense of what has occurred over the past 18 months, and what is likely to continue into the future, will impact both regular schooling and how we prepare for future crisis. This article explores this pandemic pedagogy, with a goal of situating the events since March 2020 within the broader field and providing guidance on a path forward.
He has been involved with K-12 distance, online, and blended learning for over two decades as a r... more He has been involved with K-12 distance, online, and blended learning for over two decades as a researcher, evaluator, teacher, course designer, and administrator. Michael's research has focused on the effective design, delivery, and support of K-12 distance, online, and blended learning, including how regulation, governance, and policy can impact effective environments. His background and expertise has resulted in invitations to testify before House and Senate committees in several states, as well as consulting for Ministries of Education across Canada, New Zealand, and worldwide.
The authors discuss the applicability of common assessment types used in online instruction to th... more The authors discuss the applicability of common assessment types used in online instruction to the context of emergency remote education. Written assignments, online discussions, fieldwork, tests and quizzes, presentations, and e-portfolios are specifically addressed. The discussion includes the concepts of synchronous versus asynchronous assessments and issues related to academic integrity. The authors conclude by noting that empathy and radical flexibility are integral to assessment in emergency remote education.
Arnesen, K., Walters, S., Borup, J., & Barbour, M. K. (2021). Irrelevant, overlooked, or lost? Trends in 20 years of uncited and low-cited K-12 online learning articles (translated by Yiwei Peng). Distance Education in China, 7, 45-57. In this study, we analyzed a subset of uncited or low-cited articles from the data reported in Ar... more In this study, we analyzed a subset of uncited or low-cited articles from the data reported in Arnesen, Hveem, Short, West, and Barbour (2019), who examined the trends in K-12 online learning articles from 1994 to 2016. We identified 62 articles that had 5 or fewer citations, and analyzed them for trends in authorship, publication outlets, dates of publication, and topics that could help explain their low citation numbers. We also analyzed topics to see what contribution they might have made and can still make to the field of K-12 online learning. We found that the majority of these articles had been published in many different, less well-known journals. We also found that these articles may have attracted fewer readers because they addressed topics that seemed to have a narrow focus, often outside of the U. S. The articles were also authored by both well-known researchers in the field, as well as a number of one-time authors. What we did not find were articles that were uninteresting, poorly researched, or irrelevant. Many of the articles described and discussed programs that grappled with and overcame some of the same challenges online learning still faces today: issues of interaction, community, technology, management, etc. Some of the early articles gave interesting insights into the history of K-12 online learning, especially as it involved rural learners and programs. Others addressed less mainstream but still interesting topics such as librarians in online learning, cross-border AP history classes, policies that helped or hindered the growth of online learning, and practical considerations of cost and access.
Molnar, A. (Ed.), Miron, G., Barbour, M.K., Huerta, L., Shafer, S.R., Rice, J.K., Glover, A., Browning, N., Hagle, S., & Boninger, F. (2021). Virtual schools in the U.S. 2021. Boulder, CO: National Education Policy Center. The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed virtual schooling to the forefront of the national educational l... more The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed virtual schooling to the forefront of the national educational landscape. Long-time proponents of this technology quickly positioned digital programs and platforms as the obvious solution for schools that had to close buildings to avoid transmitting the virus.
The pandemic exacerbated a trend that NEPC virtual schools’ reports have documented since 2013. While it is clear that virtual schools—particularly for-profit virtual schools—are expanding rapidly, there remains little research evidence to support or justify the expansion. Moreover, there is little policymaking at the state level adequate to the task of ensuring the quality of education that virtual school students receive.
Virtual Schools in the U.S. 2021 provides scholarly analyses of the characteristics and performance of full-time, publicly funded K-12 virtual schools; reviews the relevant available research related to virtual school practices; provides an overview of recent state legislative efforts to craft virtual school policy; and offers policy recommendations based on the available evidence.
Tolosa, C., East, M., & Barbour, M. K. (2021). Online language learning in New Zealand’s primary schools: Exploring the impact of one initiative. In U. Lanvers, A. S. Thompson, & M. East (Eds.), Language Learning in Anglophone Countries: Challenges, Practices, Ways Forward (pp. 311-329). Palgrav... Tolosa, C., East, M., & Barbour, M. K. (2021). Online language learning in New Zealand’s primary ... more Tolosa, C., East, M., & Barbour, M. K. (2021). Online language learning in New Zealand’s primary schools: Exploring the impact of one initiative. In U. Lanvers, A. S. Thompson, & M. East (Eds.), Language Learning in Anglophone Countries: Challenges, Practices, Ways Forward (pp. 311-329). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Abstract: In the context of New Zealand, a dedicated curriculum area for learning international languages is relatively new and has offered both opportunities and challenges. On the one hand, and contrary to the secondary sector where language learning uptake has declined, schools at the primary level have seen increases in numbers of students taking a language. On the other hand, the primary sector lacks specialist languages teachers and several schools are geographically isolated. One factor contributing to growth has been an initiative of the New Zealand government called Asian Language Learning in Schools (ALLiS) that provided funding to help schools establish or strengthen Asian language learning programmes. This chapter presents one initiative that received funding—the Virtual Learning Network Primary (VLNP). VLNP is a collaboration of schools established to support students through online learning opportunities, with a view to meeting the challenges of non-specialist staff and geographical isolation. We report findings from Stage Two of a two-year project funded by ALLiS. We draw on data from online surveys, student focus groups, and interviews with teachers, to explore the impact of the initiative. Overall, it was found that students enjoyed the online experience, describing it as fun, interesting and motivating in comparison with face-to-face learning. Teachers were also positive about the initiative, particularly gains in self-directed student learning. However, both teachers and students expressed frustrations around limited time for language learning online as well as technological challenges. We offer some pedagogical suggestions and see promise in further investment in e-learning initiatives.
La 13e édition du rapport sur la situation nationale du e-learning en M–12 au Canada décrit les c... more La 13e 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. Il fournit également un contexte pour la transition d’urgence à l’enseignement à distance qui a débuté en mars 2020 au tout début de la pandémie, telle que décrite par le « Projet de recherche sur l’apprentissage à distance » de CANeLearn, qui a été conçu pour décrire comment chaque juridiction gérait cette transition à l’enseignement à distance.
Les inscriptions à l’enseignement à distance ou en ligne sont demeurées relativement stables à travers le pays, on dénote cependant une légère et constante augmentation du nombre d’élèves accédant aux programmes. Bien qu’il n’y ait eu aucun changement majeur au niveau de la règlementation régissant les activités d’apprentissage à distance et en ligne de la maternelle à la 12e année par les provinces et les territoires, la consultation entre Services aux Autochtones Canada (SAC) du gouvernement fédéral et l’Assemblée des Premières Nations a donné lieu à des changements importants. Le programme « Nouveaux sentiers pour l’éducation » a été abandonné et des révisions sont en cours pour les programmes d’enseignement du primaire et du secondaire afin de rendre l’apprentissage en ligne plus complet et pour mettre en évidence et élargir les partenariats faits directement avec diverses Premières Nations.
De plus, une certaine clarté a été apportée à plusieurs propositions de modifications de l’apprentissage en ligne qui avaient été annoncées au cours de l’année scolaire 2018-2019. Par exemple, le ministre de l’Éducation de l’Ontario a annoncé que les élèves du secondaire seraient tenus de compléter deux crédits en ligne, et non les quatre précédemment annoncés, pour l’obtention du diplôme d’études secondaires à partir de 2023-2024, et que les cours pourraient être pris en compte pour cette exigence à partir de septembre 2020. De plus, la Loi sur l’Office de la télécommunication éducative de l’Ontario et la Loi de 2008 sur l’Office de la télécommunication éducative de langue française de l’Ontario ont été modifiées après l’année scolaire 2019-2020 afin d’élargir les mandats de Television Ontario (TVO) et de Télévision française de l’Ontario (TFO) pour les positionner de manière à être en mesure d’offrir des possibilités d’apprentissage en ligne centralisées.
La Colombie-Britannique a modifié le régime de financement de l’apprentissage distribué dans les écoles indépendantes et poursuit son élaboration de politiques et de modèles de prestation des programmes d’apprentissage distribué afin de refléter le financement par élève. Plusieurs provinces ont établi ou clarifié les définitions de l’apprentissage mixte pour assurer la cohérence et l’harmonisation avec la langue vernaculaire actuelle de l’apprentissage en ligne.
Le rapport sur la situation du e-learning en M–12 au Canada et les publications qui l’accompagnent sur le site Web de son projet, fournissent des renseignements essentiels et un aperçu de la façon dont les autorités éducatives et les gouvernements intègrent des approches appuyées par la technologie pour préparer les élèves à l’économie d’aujourd’hui et une société future dans laquelle l’utilisation de la technologie sera omniprésente. Le rapport et le site Web du projet fournissent une référence pour les éducateurs et offrent des informations, des conseils et des idées pour l’amélioration des politiques et des pratiques en matière d’apprentissage en ligne et d’apprentissage mixte.
The 13th issue of the annual State of the Nation: K-12 e-Learning in Canada study describes the c... more The 13th 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. This issue describes only changes that have occurred in relation to the governance and e-learning activity with full jurisdictional profiles available on the project research website. It also provides context for the emergency remote teaching that began in March 2020 during the pandemic drawn from the Canadian eLearning Network’s “Remote Learning Research Project,” which was designed to delineate how each jurisdiction managed their emergency remote teaching.
Distance or online learning enrolment remains relatively stable across the country, with a slight continuous increase in the number of students enrolled in programs. While there have been no
major changes in the nature of regulation governing K-12 distance and online learning activity in the provinces and territories, consultation between the federal government’s Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) and the Assembly of First Nations provided significant changes. The New Paths for Education Program was discontinued and revisions to the Elementary and Secondary Education Program were undertaken to make e-learning more comprehensive in nature and to focus on partnerships directly with various First Nations.
Additionally, some clarity was made for several proposed changes to e-learning that had been announced during the 2018-19 school year. For example, the Ontario Minister of Education announced that students would be required to take two, not the previously announced four, online credits to graduate from secondary school beginning with students graduating in 2023-24, and that courses could count toward this requirement beginning in September 2020. The Ontario Educational Communications Authority Act and the Ontario French-language Educational Communications Authority Act, 2008 were also amended following the 2019-20 school year to broaden the mandates of both Television Ontario (TVO) and Télévision française de l’Ontario (TFO) to position them to provide centralized e-learning opportunities.
Another example of regulatory clarity that came about during the 2019-20 school year was in British Columbia, where the government modified the funding regime for distributed learning in independent schools and the development of policy and program delivery models for distributed learning to reflect per-student-based funding continues. Other examples included several provinces that established or clarified definitions of blended learning to provide consistency and alignment with the current e-learning vernacular.
The State of the Nation: K-12 e-Learning in Canada report, and its accompanying publications on its project website, provides critical information and insight into how Canadian educational authorities and governments are integrating technology-supported approaches to prepare students for today’s economy and a future society in which the use of technology will be ubiquitous. The report and website provide a benchmark for educators and offers background, guidance, and ideas for the improvement of policy and practice in online and blended learning.
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Publications by Michael Barbour
Distance or online learning enrollment remained stable across the country, with many jurisdictions reporting an increase in the number of students enrolled in programs. Western Canada still has the largest level of student participation in online programs, while Atlantic Canada has the lowest level of participation. For the most part the school year still was impacted by the pandemic with school closures and remote learning – not online learning – as it was still viewed as temporary in nature. It remained an attempt to project a classroom instructional model to students at a distance with limited success.
During the 2021-22 school year, several jurisdictions experienced changes in their online programs regulatory framework or practices. In Québec there were 56 distance learning pilot projects, spread over 39 educational establishments and organizations with at least 1500 students involved. Ontario saw significant changes as the massive increase in e-learning with implementation of the two mandatory online courses saw the Ontario eLearning Consortium grow to include all but five of the public and Catholic school boards, with a subsequent increase in consortium staffing. Following a comprehensive review of the K-12 education system by the Manitoba Commission on K to 12 Education that concluded in March 2020, the Ministry released an action plan report that included an online high school to enhance access to programming and learning across the province. In Alberta the Funding Manual for School Authorities was further revised to account for – and even encourage – enrollment of students from other school authorities. In British Columbia, full implementation of the July, 2021 legislative changes were extended to July 2023 with interim agreements between the Ministry and school districts governed the now designated online schools for the 2021-22 school year.
The State of the Nation: K-12 e-Learning in Canada report, and its accompanying publications on its project website, provides critical information and insight into how Canadian educational authorities and governments are integrating technology-supported approaches to prepare students for today’s economy and a future society in which the use of technology will be ubiquitous. The report and website provide a benchmark for educators and offers background, guidance, and ideas for the improvement of policy and practice in online and blended learning.
While there has been a lot of debate over the impact of online and remote learning on mental health and well-being, there has been no systematic syntheses or reviews of the research on this particular issue. In this paper, we review the research on the relationship between mental health/well-being and online or remote learning. Our review shows that little scholarship existed prior to 2020 with most studies conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic. We report four findings: (1) pandemic effects are not well-controlled in most studies; (2) studies present a very mixed picture, with variability around how mental health and wellbeing are measured and how/whether any causal inferences are made in relation to online and remote learning, (3) there are some indications that certain populations of students may struggle more in an online context, and (4) research that does not assume a direct relationship between mental health and online provides the best insight into both confounding factors and possible strategies to address mental health concerns. Our review shows that 75.5% of published research on this topic either commits the correlation does not equal causation error or asserts a causal relationship even when it fails to establish correlations. Based on this study, we suggest that researchers, policymakers, practitioners, and administrators exercise extreme caution around making generalizable assertions with respect to the impacts of online/remote learning and mental health. We encourage further research to better understand effects on specific learner subpopulations and on course-and institution-level strategies to support mental health.
In March and April 2020, a series of interviews with veteran classroom and online teachers, independent evaluators, online school leaders, change agents, government officials, university faculty, and/or researchers were posted to the Virtual School Meanderings blog. Entitled “5 Minutes On K-12 Online Learning With…” the series was designed to provide advice to teachers on what to do to provide some form of continuity of learning or to parents on how to structure their child’s learning at home during the emergency remote learning that occurred in the Spring of 2020. Following this first series, in an effort to help school leaders plan for a disrupted school year that was inevitable, interviews were conducted with additional veteran school leaders, university researchers, and independent evaluators. The goal of this second series of “5 Minutes On K-12 Online Learning With…” was to ask them for guidance on (1) how to finish out the current school year and what impact that may have on how they open the coming school year, and (2) what to do to ensure that when the system has to shut down again due to local flare ups or a second wave, the toggle from in person learning to remote learning would be done in a more seamless way. Unfortunately, as most school and district leaders failed to adequately prepare for what has been two disrupted school years, this second series of “5 Minutes On K-12 Online Learning With…” likely had little impact on school leaders.
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.
Ce rapport de synthèse fait valoir qu'une planification plus poussée et une attention délibérée doivent être accordées à la préparation des enseignants, à l'infrastructure, à la politique de l'éducation et aux ressources pour pouvoir maintenir une continuité pédagogique de qualité. Les rapports de la " Série sur la pédagogie en cas de pandémie " de CANeLearn, offrent des recommandations sur la façon dont les écoles peuvent être mieux préparées à des crises futures qui intègrent des possibilités d'apprentissage à la maison et à l'école par le biais d'environnements d'apprentissage en ligne.
Un site web a été créé pour accueillir la série de rapports, ainsi que des archives de présentations d'ateliers en ligne basées sur chaque rapport. Le site web est disponible à l'adresse suivante : https://sites.google.com/view/canelearn-ert/
This report, the final 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.
This summary report argues that more planning and deliberate attention must be provided to teacher preparation, infrastructure, education policy, and resources to be able to maintain quality instructional continuity. The “Pandemic Pedagogy Series” reports by CANeLearn offer 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 and there is a strong need to pursue this line of inquiry through continuing research beyond the confines of the seven reports in the series.
A website was created to host the report series, along with an archive of online workshop presentations based on each report available at https://sites.google.com/view/canelearn-ert/
The pandemic exacerbated a trend that NEPC virtual schools’ reports have documented since 2013. While it is clear that virtual schools—particularly for-profit virtual schools—are expanding rapidly, there remains little research evidence to support or justify the expansion. Moreover, there is little policymaking at the state level adequate to the task of ensuring the quality of education that virtual school students receive.
Virtual Schools in the U.S. 2021 provides scholarly analyses of the characteristics and performance of full-time, publicly funded K-12 virtual schools; reviews the relevant available research related to virtual school practices; provides an overview of recent state legislative efforts to craft virtual school policy; and offers policy recommendations based on the available evidence.
Abstract: In the context of New Zealand, a dedicated curriculum area for learning international languages is relatively new and has offered both opportunities and challenges. On the one hand, and contrary to the secondary sector where language learning uptake has declined, schools at the primary level have seen increases in numbers of students taking a language. On the other hand, the primary sector lacks specialist languages teachers and several schools are geographically isolated. One factor contributing to growth has been an initiative of the New Zealand government called Asian Language Learning in Schools (ALLiS) that provided funding to help schools establish or strengthen Asian language learning programmes. This chapter presents one initiative that received funding—the Virtual Learning Network Primary (VLNP). VLNP is a collaboration of schools established to support students through online learning opportunities, with a view to meeting the challenges of non-specialist staff and geographical isolation. We report findings from Stage Two of a two-year project funded by ALLiS. We draw on data from online surveys, student focus groups, and interviews with teachers, to explore the impact of the initiative. Overall, it was found that students enjoyed the online experience, describing it as fun, interesting and motivating in comparison with face-to-face learning. Teachers were also positive about the initiative, particularly gains in self-directed student learning. However, both teachers and students expressed frustrations around limited time for language learning online as well as technological challenges. We offer some pedagogical suggestions and see promise in further investment in e-learning initiatives.
Les inscriptions à l’enseignement à distance ou en ligne sont demeurées relativement stables à travers le pays, on dénote cependant une légère et constante augmentation du nombre d’élèves accédant aux programmes. Bien qu’il n’y ait eu aucun changement majeur au niveau de la règlementation régissant les activités d’apprentissage à distance et en ligne de la maternelle à la 12e année par les provinces et les territoires, la consultation entre Services aux Autochtones Canada (SAC) du gouvernement fédéral et l’Assemblée des Premières Nations a donné lieu à des changements importants. Le programme « Nouveaux sentiers pour l’éducation » a été abandonné et des révisions sont en cours pour les programmes d’enseignement du primaire et du secondaire afin de rendre l’apprentissage en ligne plus complet et pour mettre en évidence et élargir les partenariats faits directement avec diverses Premières Nations.
De plus, une certaine clarté a été apportée à plusieurs propositions de modifications de l’apprentissage en ligne qui avaient été annoncées au cours de l’année scolaire 2018-2019. Par exemple, le ministre de l’Éducation de l’Ontario a annoncé que les élèves du secondaire seraient tenus de compléter deux crédits en ligne, et non les quatre précédemment annoncés, pour l’obtention du diplôme d’études secondaires à partir de 2023-2024, et que les cours pourraient être pris en compte pour cette exigence à partir de septembre 2020. De plus, la Loi sur l’Office de la télécommunication éducative de l’Ontario et la Loi de 2008 sur l’Office de la télécommunication éducative de langue française de l’Ontario ont été modifiées après l’année scolaire 2019-2020 afin d’élargir les mandats de Television Ontario (TVO) et de Télévision française de l’Ontario (TFO) pour les positionner de manière à être en mesure d’offrir des possibilités d’apprentissage en ligne centralisées.
La Colombie-Britannique a modifié le régime de financement de l’apprentissage distribué dans les écoles indépendantes et poursuit son élaboration de politiques et de modèles de prestation des programmes d’apprentissage distribué afin de refléter le financement par élève. Plusieurs provinces ont établi ou clarifié les définitions de l’apprentissage mixte pour assurer la cohérence et l’harmonisation avec la langue vernaculaire actuelle de l’apprentissage en ligne.
Le rapport sur la situation du e-learning en M–12 au Canada et les publications qui l’accompagnent sur le site Web de son projet, fournissent des renseignements essentiels et un aperçu de la façon dont les autorités éducatives et les gouvernements intègrent des approches appuyées par la technologie pour préparer les élèves à l’économie d’aujourd’hui et une société future dans laquelle l’utilisation de la technologie sera omniprésente. Le rapport et le site Web du projet fournissent une référence pour les éducateurs et offrent des informations, des conseils et des idées pour l’amélioration des politiques et des pratiques en matière d’apprentissage en ligne et d’apprentissage mixte.
Distance or online learning enrolment remains relatively stable across the country, with a slight continuous increase in the number of students enrolled in programs. While there have been no
major changes in the nature of regulation governing K-12 distance and online learning activity in the provinces and territories, consultation between the federal government’s Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) and the Assembly of First Nations provided significant changes. The New Paths for Education Program was discontinued and revisions to the Elementary and Secondary Education Program were undertaken to make e-learning more comprehensive in nature and to focus on partnerships directly with various First Nations.
Additionally, some clarity was made for several proposed changes to e-learning that had been announced during the 2018-19 school year. For example, the Ontario Minister of Education announced that students would be required to take two, not the previously announced four, online credits to graduate from secondary school beginning with students graduating in 2023-24, and that courses could count toward this requirement beginning in September 2020. The Ontario Educational Communications Authority Act and the Ontario French-language Educational Communications Authority Act, 2008 were also amended following the 2019-20 school year to broaden the mandates of both Television Ontario (TVO) and Télévision française de l’Ontario (TFO) to position them to provide centralized e-learning opportunities.
Another example of regulatory clarity that came about during the 2019-20 school year was in British Columbia, where the government modified the funding regime for distributed learning in independent schools and the development of policy and program delivery models for distributed learning to reflect per-student-based funding continues. Other examples included several provinces that established or clarified definitions of blended learning to provide consistency and alignment with the current e-learning vernacular.
The State of the Nation: K-12 e-Learning in Canada report, and its accompanying publications on its project website, provides critical information and insight into how Canadian educational authorities and governments are integrating technology-supported approaches to prepare students for today’s economy and a future society in which the use of technology will be ubiquitous. The report and website provide a benchmark for educators and offers background, guidance, and ideas for the improvement of policy and practice in online and blended learning.
Distance or online learning enrollment remained stable across the country, with many jurisdictions reporting an increase in the number of students enrolled in programs. Western Canada still has the largest level of student participation in online programs, while Atlantic Canada has the lowest level of participation. For the most part the school year still was impacted by the pandemic with school closures and remote learning – not online learning – as it was still viewed as temporary in nature. It remained an attempt to project a classroom instructional model to students at a distance with limited success.
During the 2021-22 school year, several jurisdictions experienced changes in their online programs regulatory framework or practices. In Québec there were 56 distance learning pilot projects, spread over 39 educational establishments and organizations with at least 1500 students involved. Ontario saw significant changes as the massive increase in e-learning with implementation of the two mandatory online courses saw the Ontario eLearning Consortium grow to include all but five of the public and Catholic school boards, with a subsequent increase in consortium staffing. Following a comprehensive review of the K-12 education system by the Manitoba Commission on K to 12 Education that concluded in March 2020, the Ministry released an action plan report that included an online high school to enhance access to programming and learning across the province. In Alberta the Funding Manual for School Authorities was further revised to account for – and even encourage – enrollment of students from other school authorities. In British Columbia, full implementation of the July, 2021 legislative changes were extended to July 2023 with interim agreements between the Ministry and school districts governed the now designated online schools for the 2021-22 school year.
The State of the Nation: K-12 e-Learning in Canada report, and its accompanying publications on its project website, provides critical information and insight into how Canadian educational authorities and governments are integrating technology-supported approaches to prepare students for today’s economy and a future society in which the use of technology will be ubiquitous. The report and website provide a benchmark for educators and offers background, guidance, and ideas for the improvement of policy and practice in online and blended learning.
While there has been a lot of debate over the impact of online and remote learning on mental health and well-being, there has been no systematic syntheses or reviews of the research on this particular issue. In this paper, we review the research on the relationship between mental health/well-being and online or remote learning. Our review shows that little scholarship existed prior to 2020 with most studies conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic. We report four findings: (1) pandemic effects are not well-controlled in most studies; (2) studies present a very mixed picture, with variability around how mental health and wellbeing are measured and how/whether any causal inferences are made in relation to online and remote learning, (3) there are some indications that certain populations of students may struggle more in an online context, and (4) research that does not assume a direct relationship between mental health and online provides the best insight into both confounding factors and possible strategies to address mental health concerns. Our review shows that 75.5% of published research on this topic either commits the correlation does not equal causation error or asserts a causal relationship even when it fails to establish correlations. Based on this study, we suggest that researchers, policymakers, practitioners, and administrators exercise extreme caution around making generalizable assertions with respect to the impacts of online/remote learning and mental health. We encourage further research to better understand effects on specific learner subpopulations and on course-and institution-level strategies to support mental health.
In March and April 2020, a series of interviews with veteran classroom and online teachers, independent evaluators, online school leaders, change agents, government officials, university faculty, and/or researchers were posted to the Virtual School Meanderings blog. Entitled “5 Minutes On K-12 Online Learning With…” the series was designed to provide advice to teachers on what to do to provide some form of continuity of learning or to parents on how to structure their child’s learning at home during the emergency remote learning that occurred in the Spring of 2020. Following this first series, in an effort to help school leaders plan for a disrupted school year that was inevitable, interviews were conducted with additional veteran school leaders, university researchers, and independent evaluators. The goal of this second series of “5 Minutes On K-12 Online Learning With…” was to ask them for guidance on (1) how to finish out the current school year and what impact that may have on how they open the coming school year, and (2) what to do to ensure that when the system has to shut down again due to local flare ups or a second wave, the toggle from in person learning to remote learning would be done in a more seamless way. Unfortunately, as most school and district leaders failed to adequately prepare for what has been two disrupted school years, this second series of “5 Minutes On K-12 Online Learning With…” likely had little impact on school leaders.
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.
Ce rapport de synthèse fait valoir qu'une planification plus poussée et une attention délibérée doivent être accordées à la préparation des enseignants, à l'infrastructure, à la politique de l'éducation et aux ressources pour pouvoir maintenir une continuité pédagogique de qualité. Les rapports de la " Série sur la pédagogie en cas de pandémie " de CANeLearn, offrent des recommandations sur la façon dont les écoles peuvent être mieux préparées à des crises futures qui intègrent des possibilités d'apprentissage à la maison et à l'école par le biais d'environnements d'apprentissage en ligne.
Un site web a été créé pour accueillir la série de rapports, ainsi que des archives de présentations d'ateliers en ligne basées sur chaque rapport. Le site web est disponible à l'adresse suivante : https://sites.google.com/view/canelearn-ert/
This report, the final 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.
This summary report argues that more planning and deliberate attention must be provided to teacher preparation, infrastructure, education policy, and resources to be able to maintain quality instructional continuity. The “Pandemic Pedagogy Series” reports by CANeLearn offer 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 and there is a strong need to pursue this line of inquiry through continuing research beyond the confines of the seven reports in the series.
A website was created to host the report series, along with an archive of online workshop presentations based on each report available at https://sites.google.com/view/canelearn-ert/
The pandemic exacerbated a trend that NEPC virtual schools’ reports have documented since 2013. While it is clear that virtual schools—particularly for-profit virtual schools—are expanding rapidly, there remains little research evidence to support or justify the expansion. Moreover, there is little policymaking at the state level adequate to the task of ensuring the quality of education that virtual school students receive.
Virtual Schools in the U.S. 2021 provides scholarly analyses of the characteristics and performance of full-time, publicly funded K-12 virtual schools; reviews the relevant available research related to virtual school practices; provides an overview of recent state legislative efforts to craft virtual school policy; and offers policy recommendations based on the available evidence.
Abstract: In the context of New Zealand, a dedicated curriculum area for learning international languages is relatively new and has offered both opportunities and challenges. On the one hand, and contrary to the secondary sector where language learning uptake has declined, schools at the primary level have seen increases in numbers of students taking a language. On the other hand, the primary sector lacks specialist languages teachers and several schools are geographically isolated. One factor contributing to growth has been an initiative of the New Zealand government called Asian Language Learning in Schools (ALLiS) that provided funding to help schools establish or strengthen Asian language learning programmes. This chapter presents one initiative that received funding—the Virtual Learning Network Primary (VLNP). VLNP is a collaboration of schools established to support students through online learning opportunities, with a view to meeting the challenges of non-specialist staff and geographical isolation. We report findings from Stage Two of a two-year project funded by ALLiS. We draw on data from online surveys, student focus groups, and interviews with teachers, to explore the impact of the initiative. Overall, it was found that students enjoyed the online experience, describing it as fun, interesting and motivating in comparison with face-to-face learning. Teachers were also positive about the initiative, particularly gains in self-directed student learning. However, both teachers and students expressed frustrations around limited time for language learning online as well as technological challenges. We offer some pedagogical suggestions and see promise in further investment in e-learning initiatives.
Les inscriptions à l’enseignement à distance ou en ligne sont demeurées relativement stables à travers le pays, on dénote cependant une légère et constante augmentation du nombre d’élèves accédant aux programmes. Bien qu’il n’y ait eu aucun changement majeur au niveau de la règlementation régissant les activités d’apprentissage à distance et en ligne de la maternelle à la 12e année par les provinces et les territoires, la consultation entre Services aux Autochtones Canada (SAC) du gouvernement fédéral et l’Assemblée des Premières Nations a donné lieu à des changements importants. Le programme « Nouveaux sentiers pour l’éducation » a été abandonné et des révisions sont en cours pour les programmes d’enseignement du primaire et du secondaire afin de rendre l’apprentissage en ligne plus complet et pour mettre en évidence et élargir les partenariats faits directement avec diverses Premières Nations.
De plus, une certaine clarté a été apportée à plusieurs propositions de modifications de l’apprentissage en ligne qui avaient été annoncées au cours de l’année scolaire 2018-2019. Par exemple, le ministre de l’Éducation de l’Ontario a annoncé que les élèves du secondaire seraient tenus de compléter deux crédits en ligne, et non les quatre précédemment annoncés, pour l’obtention du diplôme d’études secondaires à partir de 2023-2024, et que les cours pourraient être pris en compte pour cette exigence à partir de septembre 2020. De plus, la Loi sur l’Office de la télécommunication éducative de l’Ontario et la Loi de 2008 sur l’Office de la télécommunication éducative de langue française de l’Ontario ont été modifiées après l’année scolaire 2019-2020 afin d’élargir les mandats de Television Ontario (TVO) et de Télévision française de l’Ontario (TFO) pour les positionner de manière à être en mesure d’offrir des possibilités d’apprentissage en ligne centralisées.
La Colombie-Britannique a modifié le régime de financement de l’apprentissage distribué dans les écoles indépendantes et poursuit son élaboration de politiques et de modèles de prestation des programmes d’apprentissage distribué afin de refléter le financement par élève. Plusieurs provinces ont établi ou clarifié les définitions de l’apprentissage mixte pour assurer la cohérence et l’harmonisation avec la langue vernaculaire actuelle de l’apprentissage en ligne.
Le rapport sur la situation du e-learning en M–12 au Canada et les publications qui l’accompagnent sur le site Web de son projet, fournissent des renseignements essentiels et un aperçu de la façon dont les autorités éducatives et les gouvernements intègrent des approches appuyées par la technologie pour préparer les élèves à l’économie d’aujourd’hui et une société future dans laquelle l’utilisation de la technologie sera omniprésente. Le rapport et le site Web du projet fournissent une référence pour les éducateurs et offrent des informations, des conseils et des idées pour l’amélioration des politiques et des pratiques en matière d’apprentissage en ligne et d’apprentissage mixte.
Distance or online learning enrolment remains relatively stable across the country, with a slight continuous increase in the number of students enrolled in programs. While there have been no
major changes in the nature of regulation governing K-12 distance and online learning activity in the provinces and territories, consultation between the federal government’s Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) and the Assembly of First Nations provided significant changes. The New Paths for Education Program was discontinued and revisions to the Elementary and Secondary Education Program were undertaken to make e-learning more comprehensive in nature and to focus on partnerships directly with various First Nations.
Additionally, some clarity was made for several proposed changes to e-learning that had been announced during the 2018-19 school year. For example, the Ontario Minister of Education announced that students would be required to take two, not the previously announced four, online credits to graduate from secondary school beginning with students graduating in 2023-24, and that courses could count toward this requirement beginning in September 2020. The Ontario Educational Communications Authority Act and the Ontario French-language Educational Communications Authority Act, 2008 were also amended following the 2019-20 school year to broaden the mandates of both Television Ontario (TVO) and Télévision française de l’Ontario (TFO) to position them to provide centralized e-learning opportunities.
Another example of regulatory clarity that came about during the 2019-20 school year was in British Columbia, where the government modified the funding regime for distributed learning in independent schools and the development of policy and program delivery models for distributed learning to reflect per-student-based funding continues. Other examples included several provinces that established or clarified definitions of blended learning to provide consistency and alignment with the current e-learning vernacular.
The State of the Nation: K-12 e-Learning in Canada report, and its accompanying publications on its project website, provides critical information and insight into how Canadian educational authorities and governments are integrating technology-supported approaches to prepare students for today’s economy and a future society in which the use of technology will be ubiquitous. The report and website provide a benchmark for educators and offers background, guidance, and ideas for the improvement of policy and practice in online and blended learning.
• Bridging the gap between research and practice
• Learner control
• Teacher support
• The potential of MOOCs
• On-site mentoring
Readers who peruse this latest issue will find that research and practice, set-ting an agenda for research, learner roles and responsibilities, and teacher support are still highly relevant topics. For example, in 2016—the first full year of the journal—Parks and Oliver hosted a special issue about professional learning. More recently, Bergdahl and Bond (2022) put together a special issue about student dis/engagement.
https://www.learntechlib.org/c/JOLR/
identify the leading scholars, journals, top-cited articles, research methods, and topics in this field of inquiry. Our research process involved first, collecting a corpus of journal articles focused on K-12 online and distance learning; second, categorizing these articles according to their research methodologies; third, analyzing trends not only in methodologies employed, but also in authorship, citations, journals, and topics addressed. In analyzing 356 articles, we found the field of K-12 online learning to be growing rapidly in recent years with acceleration not only of new articles, but especially of new authors. We also found that the field of K-12 online learning began primarily emphasizing theoretical articles but is now maturing and emphasizing increasingly more data-based articles. We found that K-12 online learning scholarship is scattered among many journals, providing rich opportunities for scholars while also making it more difficult to discern trends across the discipline.