SASKATOON — The high school in Val Marie, Sask., was unable to graduate students three years ago because it lost its English teacher.
Similar situations in the sparsely populated southwestern corner of the province led the regional school division to develop a distance education network to ensure schools wouldn’t close, students could stay close to home and teachers had full classes in their specialty subject.
The Chinook Cyber School has since developed a relationship with 18 schools in an area the size of Nova Scotia and with 14 teachers who help it deliver 54 essential and optional courses for high school students.
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It helps that the cyber school’s staff are local teachers who understand that there are times when many of the students will be helping with harvest or branding and need flexibility with their school work, said Shelby Budd, principal of the online school.
She told the 17th National Congress on Rural Education in Canada that the school offers three ways to deliver courses by computer:
- A video conference offered at the same time to several schools to teach courses, often math and science, with the teacher in one school face to face with students across the region. Questions can be immediately asked and answered.
- Online courses, often optional ones, are offered anytime the students access them, with the teacher serving as a resource if there are questions.
- Continuous intake allows students to come in at any point to pick up essential courses during a calendar year rather than just the school year. Budd said this works well with those who need to quickly complete one or two courses to get their high school diploma for a job and with hockey players who because of their playing schedule often miss regular class instruction time.
Budd said the technology doesn’t always work properly and students must be monitored, but cyber school can build pride and connections.
