BARRHEAD — Since the cancellation of classes across the province, the Alberta Distance Learning Centre (ADLC) has seen four times as many teachers enroll during the last two and a half weeks in March to utilize its online resources as during the same timeframe in the 2018-2019 school year.
After seeing a spike in COVID-19 cases linked to community transmission, the Alberta government made the decision on March 15 to cancel in-person classes across the province indefinitely.
However, schools would technically remain in operation, and teachers were directed to investigate how to continue providing instruction to their students in core subjects.
The ADLC in Barrhead serves the education system in two ways, both of which are free to Alberta school divisions: first, by providing resources to teachers that they can use to instruct their students; and second, by having in-house staff provide instruction to students directly after they register for a course through their local school.
ADLC principal Steven Kaplan said he has worked with Pembina Hills Supt. Dave Garbutt over the past couple of years to shift emphasis to the support that the centre provides to teachers through access to the ADLC’s resources.
“We can do instruction, but (it’s) a great other service we provide by letting Alberta school teachers from Alberta school authorities access our resources to use in their own classrooms,” he said.
During the two-week period from March 16-30, 2019, the ADLC had approximately 825 Alberta teachers enrolled in their system to access and then teach one of their courses.
An example would be a teacher at Barrhead Composite High School wanting to use an online course provided by ADLC, so they create a section in an ADLC server, register all the students in their class and then teach that course to their students.
This year, there were more than 3,700 enrolments by teachers during approximately the same time period (March 16 to April 1, 2020).
“That’s quite telling. It’s not 10 per cent over; it’s 400-plus per cent, which is quite significant in terms of teachers accessing the ADLC,” said principal Steven Kaplan.
“And that stands to reason, right? When you think of what’s going on around students not being able to go to school, and teachers trying to figure out how they’re going to support kids and their learning, that’s expected. And I’m sure that nobody would be surprised by that.”
He noted they had a couple of bulk enrolments by larger public boards who had all their teachers put into the system at the same time, and they’ve had inquiries from other smaller school divisions about doing the same.
Another statistic Kaplan provided was the number of “external teachers” registering at ADLC to use its resources.
An “internal” teacher at ADLC would be an employee who actually works at the distance education centre, while an “external” teacher would be a teacher at a school outside of ADLC who wants to register to use the centre’s resources.
While he didn’t have numbers relating to last year, Kaplan said there are currently 16,500 teachers registered as external teachers through ADLC, which is roughly half of all the full-time and part-time teachers in Alberta.
Of that amount, roughly 9,100 external teachers have registered to utilize ADLC’s resources in the last two and a half weeks.
“Teachers are … looking for ways to help support kids and their learning, and ADLC has been a mechanism that’s been available to them,” said Kaplan.
Taxing the system?
Kaplan noted he was about send out a message last week to the ADLC’s partners about how they are well-positioned to support teachers and students in the coming months.
While most distance education programs can serve students as long as they have a computer and Internet access, the ADLC is a leader in terms of its infrastructure, its course selections and other resources, said Kaplan.
And while COVID-19 might force the bulk of their staff to work from home, there have otherwise been no interruptions in the ADLC’s service.
“In fact, the transition for us has been seamless,” he added.
Kaplan noted that to facilitate teachers using the ADLC’s resources, they have been setting up a number of training sessions where external teachers can ask for help directly from ADLC staff.
He said their internal teachers collaborated on a lengthy schedule of training sessions for people outside of the ADLC needing extra support. Many teachers are heading up multiple training sessions, like two “beginner” sessions and two advanced sessions.
Several of these training sessions have been done in concert with the Edmonton Learning Consortium, who were getting questions during the last two weeks about how to access ADLC resources.
“That probably helped educate some people on how to get connected to ADLC,” he said. “That probably helped educate some people on how to get connected to ADLC.”
Kaplan suggested the training sessions were meant to aid teachers as Easter break nears and other divisions take a late spring break.
“What we provide for students and schools across the province is really important. And our teachers are definitely willing to go the extra mile,” he said.
Kevin Berger, TownandCountryToday.com
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