Blended Learning Canada
Surviving the Transition to Online Education
A Crash Course for Teachers Facing School Shutdowns due to COVID-19
Time to Get Students & Teachers Successfully Online!
The Provincial Education System is facing unprecedented challenges due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. We have a Blended Learning Model with an amazing record of success and are rapidly developing a comprehensive plan to allow senior classes to continue online after the Spring Break!
There is no time to waste!
Individual Online Learning
One online teacher reaching out to an entire class of students!
The teacher can be anywhere in the world where there is an internet connection. Each individual member of the class can log on anywhere in the world through the internet to interact live with the teacher and classmates. Our comprehensive approach will quickly train the school, the teachers and the students how to do this! To be successful online, we will reconnect students to the classroom teachers they had before spring break!
We will provide easy to follow instructions!
Our Goal is to Teach all stake-holders how to hold Successful online classes!
Over the past 10 years we have learned how to do this! We know how to ‘blend’ the best of online technology with the best teaching practices. Students connected daily to teachers is the key to success!
You can do this!
Most Districts, Schools and Teachers simply don’t know how to create a successful online blended learning enviornment for the entire student population.
Right now, there is an unprecedented need to train ALL SCHOOLS, TEACHERS and STUDENTS in the province how to interact, teach and learn online!!! There is no time to be wasted!!!
We are a group of educators and technicians who have successfully created and implemented powerful online blended learning courses. To be successful you must blend the best teaching practices with the best use of current technology. Paper-based lessons put online will not work for students – they need to hear, see and interact with their teacher, just as they would in a classroom!
We are offering our Expertise
As a group of teachers and technicians we were charged with the task to create an online model of teaching that would greatly improve the results over the standard distributed or distance learning programs that were failing the vast majority of students and teachers. We have now been doing this for over 10 years with absolutely amazing results!
Now that there is a greater need than ever for this model, our passion has led us to help others learn how to implement this on a large scale. There are not enough trained Distributed Learning teachers to get the Province through this current crisis, and we are very experienced with taking classroom teachers and training them for a blended learning model.
Blended Learning Canada
Who are we? What have we Accomplished?
Brief History and Accomplishments
In 2010, we were tasked with the creation and teaching of a new online course to five grade 11 classes 30 kilometers from where the teacher was located. It was a test model in Kelowna British Columbia to see how it compared with the standard distributed learning program.
The program was so successful with a 100% course completion rate, compared to the traditional model of less than 17% completion rate that our model expanded to 12 classes at 3 schools the following year.
Continued Success and Expansion
By 2015 the program grew to include two courses for every grade 11 student in the district, which was over 1500 students. The program not only taught important standard curriculum but also taught all teachers and students how to best communicate by blending the best of technology with best teaching practices, and thus our ‘blended learning’ model was born.
Expanded to another District
We started a pilot program with another district several hundred kilometers away. Without physically ever going there, we taught the teachers through the use of online technology, and ultimately taught three classes. This program was so successful we sold our content and procedures to that district so they could be independent from us.
A strong online program was created, by two of our Blended Learning Teachers for grade 7-9 students which we capped at 70 students who really needed to be at home for their education, due to their mental health, being involved in competitive sports, performing arts, etc. As the students finished grade 9, the parents asked if we could create a grade 10 program, which was much more complex as it requires specialist teachers. We successfully created the program with plans for a full graduation program the following year.
An Overseas Request for Help
After a request for help from a school in South Korea, the three of us got back together in late 2019 and rekindled our passion to see the Blended Learning model meet the needs of online education. Then, the COVID-19 virus broke out and at midnight on March 5, 2020 a call from South Korea asking for more help and input for their online program, as the need was immediate and critical with students no longer able to attend regular school programs.
Became very aware we had the ability to Help
The education systems in North America now need the same immediate help setting up online learning. We have the expertise to do that. We do not use ‘trained’ online teachers for our programs, as their mindset is typically not what is needed. We trained our own teachers in a blended learning model. We wanted them to do more than just put paper-based lessons online and then have students, in isolation from other students, self-pace their way through the course. We design regularly scheduled online sessions with all class members proceeding at the same rate as in a regular classroom setting, with the same teachers they had before Spring Break!
We are ready to start training teachers!
This will take time, but we can get the Grade 10-12 teachers up and running quite quickly as we have done this in the past many times – and will have this course prepared for them. Then the school will direct the students to a timetable, like any other school timetable, that will replicate the one they were already on, but instead of reporting to Mrs. Smith’s homeroom classroom, for example, they will be scheduled to report to Mrs. Smith’s online session. The entire school then follows a ‘start up’ procedure like any school start-up. First day being more of an orientation day to work out the details and procedures, then the full timetable will begin as soon as possible. Because our program was integrated into brick and mortar schools with scheduled bells defining periods of different studies, we are familiar with all aspects of running an online program following traditional school procedures. This includes everything from taking attendance and even group work, to time-out for uncooperative students.
We will use a ‘Train the Trainer’ Method
As quickly as possible we will assemble the succonded group of teachers and begin to train them. In turn, they will be assigned to school districts to begin training selected teachers from each school. Having done this we are confident this is the best method. The original trainers will remain in touch with each district to assist as needed. This will not only create a network for this current crisis, but one that could be used in the future for other unforeseen situations. This netwwork that could be implemented immediately in the future.
