Session 16

The Evergreen E-Learning Initiative: Teaching Students How to Learn Online

Session Description:

The Evergreen School Division E-Learning initiative was established to provide as many students as possible with the opportunity to engage in an online learning experience. It was also intended to expose a wider range of teachers to e-learning with a view to developing their capacity to use WebCT as an instructional tool.

This project involves three separate high schools in the communities of Riverton, Gimli, and Arborg and a total student population of approximately 500 students. Efforts in previous years to deliver online courses were not highly successful, and it was felt that we needed a new approach. As a result, this initiative was born with a view to providing students with the opportunity to pursue online learning in a guided setting, and giving them the skills that they needed to become competent online learners.
This project sees students engage in their learning in a hybrid environment. The intention is to provide students with the opportunity to complete their unit of study online and allow them to work through material as they wish. However, elements of the traditional classroom are maintained to provide them with a more guided approach to learning than they can expect if a course delivered entirely online.
At the outset, students are introduced to the web interface and walked through the Web CT program. Depending upon the student`s comfort level, he or she may proceed independently. It is hoped that they gradually develop the skills they need to become successful online learners.
Teachers also employ components of Web CT as a teaching tool in the classroom. A number of classes are equipped with projectors that allow teachers to use elements of the Web CT course as an instructional tool in the regular classroom. Teachers are then able to use this to demonstrate concepts to the larger class.

E-Learning Facilitators (ELFs) in each school are responsible for co-ordinating the program within the school, including computer access for students.
The goals of the project are to develop student skills to make them competent online learners and to simultaneously develop teachers’ capacity to utilize Web CT as an instructional tool.
We will provide an overview of our experiences in supporting WebCT implementation in Evergreen School Division, share testimonials from students and teachers with regard to this initiative.

Presenters: Thomas Kowalchuk, Georgia Sigvaldason

Thomas Kowalchuk (M.Ed.) is Principal of Riverton Collegiate. A strong advocate for small school and rural education, he has spearheaded a number of initiatives geared to exploring new ways to deliver quality programs to a broad range of students.

Georgia Sigvaldason currently works in Evergreen School Division half time as a consultant and teaches ICT courses half time at Arborg Collegiate. Since joining ESD, she has worked with the WebCT courses divisionally and as part of the eLearning project in the high schools for the past two years.