K12 distributed learning (aka K12 online learning) has increased steadily over the past decade. A majority of districts, but not all, have their own distributed learning (DL) school. During the response to COVID-19, these programs became flooded with waitlists. Unfortunately, a majority of them are asynchronous-only and peer-to-peer engagement can be limited, in part to “continuous enrolment” which means learners have a full year to start/finish a course and can do so at any pace during the year (e.g., start early/end early, take a break mid-year, etc.). In BC, DL class size caps do not have the limits that exist for brick-and-mortar teachers, which can be problematic. In some cases, course shells are purchased from companies outside of Canada (e.g., eDynamic Learning in Texas). While we know that modality bias exists, whereby online learning is assumed to be passive, while face-to-face learning is assumed to be rich and dynamic, this often has little to do with whether a course is F2F or online, but moreso the learning design. K12 DL is a critical part to the K12 system; however, it needs supports that are at least equivalent to brick-and-mortar education if it is to overcome modality bias.
To learn more about K12 DL in BC, explore:
BlendEd BC [Website]
On Twitter:
To learn more about K12 DL in Canada, explore:
CanElearn [Website]
On Twitter:
Photo by Thomas Park on Unsplash
Leave a Reply