NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
Two schools outside the Beaufort Delta will be added to the list of those offering e-learning programs next fall, says the territory's education department.

Students from Fort McPherson and Tuktoyaktuk participate in a e-Learning program through the Beaufort Delta District Education Council.

Right now, e-learning programs are being offered at schools in Aklavik, Tuktoyaktuk and Fort McPherson using Inuvik's East Three Secondary as a host school.

Last week, the Department of Education, Culture and Employment announced a $500,000 one-time funding allotment to expand the e-learning program to schools outside the Beaufort Delta Education Council.

Chris Gilmour, BDEC's IT teacher consultant, said the expansion means more students in small communities will have access to courses not currently offered in their home schools.

"The reality is at the high school level there are so few students that it can be a real challenge to offer a wide range of courses and to have a number of different teachers in a really small community that can teach a wide variety of courses," he said. "What e-learning really does is just connects those students to other classes that are being offered at that time."

Gilmour said high schools in small communities are often unable to offer courses required for entrance into university or college programs, such as chemistry or physics. Students in the Northwest Territories are usually required to do an extra year of academic upgrading in order to qualify for college or university programs. Gilmour said by virtue of being larger, East Three Secondary School offers more of the courses required for entrance into post-secondary school and has more teachers available to teach them.

Expanding the e-learning program will allow more students in the territory to access the courses offered in Inuvik, Gilmour said.

It will also reduce the number of split-level classes in small schools, allowing more advanced students to take classes via e-learning while their usual teacher focuses on the remaining students.

Agnes Cudmore, principal of Mangilaluk School in Tuktoyaktuk, said the school has three e-learning students this year.

She said the program is also teaching students to develop the independent work habits and skills they'll need to succeed at the post-secondary level.

But teacher Gene Jenks said new opportunities don't stop there. Jenks, who has been a member of East Three Secondary's School e-learning team since its inception, said there is also the possibility of connecting other schools in the territory using e-learning technology.

"The end goal is not to have Inuvik as the only place to deliver these courses, but that through experience in maybe taking them, teachers from the other regions as well can also deliver them," he said. "It will become more interactive and not just all headquartered through us up here."

Humble beginnings

The first e-learning class took place about five years ago and interaction between students and teachers consisted of telephones placed in the middle of their classrooms, Jenks said.

"The first year we did this it was literally using a conference call telephone," he said. "The student on the other end of the line was very disengaged, we didn't know if they were paying attention or not. We couldn't see them and they couldn't see us."

Jenks said at that time, students were able to access their course work online, which created a learning environment that felt more like distance education.

"That classroom atmosphere wasn't there," he said.

Jenks said as technology improved, so did the program. Now, students use videoconferencing networks, supplied through Northwestel, to connect with classrooms in Inuvik, complete with video and sound.

"Half of a successful classroom is engagement of the student to the lesson and for them to be fully engaged, they have to feel as if they're a part of the classroom community," Jenks said.

He said the other half of student success involves how well a teacher judges students' progress, which Jenks said is now as easy with e-learning students as it is with those in the classroom.

"It really does make them as much of a member of our class as anybody in the classroom with me," he said.

Gilmour said staff have tested the technology as far away as Ulukhaktok and are certain it will work everywhere in the territory.

"We have every bit of confidence that it will work in any community in fact in the Northwest Territories," he said.

Gilmour also said when the program began, it offered two courses to a handful of students. This year, there are 25 students enrolled in the eight courses available.

Calling on schools to apply

Rita Mueller, assistant deputy minister of education and culture with ECE, said a letter outlining the project was scheduled for distribution to superintendents of education boards and councils last week. Mueller said

The goal is to receive replies by the end of March, allowing ECE staff to then choose two schools to pilot the program.

E-learning programming would then be offered to the chosen schools next fall, she said.

"We're looking for two other education authorities that want to be partners in this," she said.

Mueller said depending on the program's success in other regions, ECE could look to expand e-learning.

"We want to start off in small increments," she said. "We want to learn from those experiences before you take it to a complete, territorial level."

The courses offered will depend on the schools' needs, she said.

"That might change from semester to semester," she said.

For now, Mueller said staff are concentrating on paving the way for the expansion, including recognizing BDEC staff for pioneering the program.

"I think they really need to be commended for that," she said.

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