Toward a Virtual Learning Service For Québec schools and centres: From concept to project

1. Toward a Virtual Learning ServiceFor Québec schools and centres:From concept to project Presentation to the Quebec English SchoolBoards Association Pierre Giguère September 7, 2012

2. PresentationOutline The concept of ”virtual school” SOFAD’s report of November 2005 Why a Virtual Learning Service? Origins and development of virtual schools On our doorstep: virtual schools in Ontario Still waiting for a Québec distance education policy A strategic development priority for SOFAD Creation of a Partners’ Committee to design and implement a Virtual Learning Service for Québec Links with other developments

3. 1. The concept of “virtual school” • A schoolwithoutwalls, withoutclassrooms and without a limit on the number of students • A particularform of distance education • A learningorganizationthat uses the potential of web technologies, usually in asynchronous mode

4. 1. The concept of “virtual school” … Definitions A virtualschool, or cyberschool, describes an institution thatteaches courses entirely or primarilythrough online methods. Thoughthere are tens of thousands of commercial and non-accredited courses available online, the term "virtualschool" isgenerallyreserved for accreditedschoolsthatteach a full-time (or nearlyfull-time) course of instruction designed to lead to a degree. • iNACOL (alsoused on Wikipedia) • Virtual schoolrefers to an institution thatis not "brick and mortar" bound. All student services and courses are conductedthrough Internet technology.  The virtualschooldiffersfrom the traditionalschoolthrough the physical medium that links administrators, teachers, and students.  • The Technology Source Archives, University of North Carolina

5. 1. The concept of “virtual school” …

6. 2. SOFAD’s report of November 2005 - Based on an analysis of cases of youngstudentswhocouldbenefitfrom distance education - Shows the evolution of somevirtualschools - Ends withrecommendationsregarding a distance education service for secondary-schoolstudents and envisions the creation of a public virtualschool in Québec

7. 3. Why a Virtual Learning Service? • To increaseaccessibility and flexibility in oureducational system • To offer a common service to all the schoolboards • To giveschools and centres more options • To more effectivelymeet the needs and constraints of particular client groups • To bring back to the public sectorthosestudentswho are not enrolled in our institutions • To solve the difficultiesthatmanyregions face with respect to recruitingspecializedteachers and starting classes for optionalsubjects • To modernizelearningenvironments in Québec’sschool system • To facilitateperseverance and success for all students

8. 4. Origins and developmentof virtualschools Florida Virtual High School: The first FLVS wasfounded in 1997 and was the country's first, state-wideInternet-based public highschool http://www.flvs.net/Pages/default.aspx http://www.flvs.net/areas/aboutus/Pages/QuickFactsaboutFLVS.aspx

9. 4. Origins and developmentof virtualschools … FVHS isalso the best known, the largest, the mostdocumented, the mostcovered, the most open (to sharing)… StudentEnrollment FVHS served over 122,000 students in 259,928 half-creditenrollments in the 2010-2011 schoolyear. Enrollmentis open to public, private, and home-schooledstudents. Courses are offeredfrom P1 to S12 FVHS students come from all of the otherAmerican states and fromother countries (57)

10. 5. On ourdoorstep: virtualscools in Ontario • There is a privatevirtualschool in Ottawa: the Ottawa Carleton E-Schoolhttp://www.ottawacarletone-school.ca/ • The Ontario Virtual High Schoolhttps://www.virtualhighschool.com/ • TheVirtual Learning Centrehttp://www.virtuallearning.ca/ • Le Consortium d’apprentissage virtuel de langue française de l’Ontariohttp://www.apprentissageenligne.org/-located in Ottawa-under the Conseil des écoles catholiques du Centre-Est (CECCE)

11. 6. Stillwaiting for a Québecdistance educationpolicy • The MELS had a workingcommitte on a distance educationpolicyfrom 2008 to 2011 • Manyentities in the educational system have been asking for such a policy for more than 15 years • Around the year2000,weweretoldthatsuch a policywouldbecovered in the Politique gouvernementale d’éducation des adultes et de formation continue(2002) • A possible turning point: in July 2010,throughvideoconferencing, CLIFAD membersexplained the value of a virtual high school to representatives of the MELS’s Direction des politiques and to the Minister of Education’sparliamentaryassistant, Mr Michel Pigeon

12. 7. A strategicdevelopmentpriorityfor SOFAD • Our first priority: To promote the development of distance education • To make distance educationavailable to secondary-schoolstudents • To create a Virtual Learning Service in Québec • for young and adultstudents• for francophones and anglophones

13. 8. Creation of a Partners’ Committeto design and implementa Virtual Learning Service for Québec • A smallcommitteebegan meeting in September 2011. Itsmembershipwillbeaugmented in the near future by:- representativesfrom the secondaryeducationsector and the adulteducationsector. • SOFAD suggeststhatwestart by offeringSecondary IV and Secondary V courses. • So far, 5 meetings have been held. • We are nowworking on describing and designing the Virtual Learning Service weenvision and on writingproposals to besubmitted to the schoolboards and the MELS.

14. 9. Links withotherdevelopments

15. Presentation to the Québec English SchoolBoards Association September 13, 2012Pierre Giguère This, and other, presentations are availableat www.sofad.qc.ca/html/sof_doc.html