Distance Education at the Secondary Level in Qubec

1
Distance Education at the Secondary Level in
Québec

• Présentation à la réunion annuelle de la P/TDEA
• Victoria, B.C.
• Robert Saucier
• 29 septembre 2004

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PowerPoint Is Evil

• Power Corrupts.
• PowerPoint Corrupts Absolutely.
• The standard PowerPoint presentation elevates
  format over content, betraying an attitude of
  commercialism that turns everything into a sales
  pitch.
• Edward Tufte, Wired, Issue 11.09, September 2003
• http//www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/ppt2.html

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Content

• A SOFAD description
• A brief history of DE at the secondary level in
  Québec
• Major recent development and issues
• Conclusion

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A SOFAD description

• Adults
• Self-paced
• Materials
• In DE or in adult education centres
• Online and in print
• French and English

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A brief history of DE at the secondary level in
Québec

• One administrative unit at the Ministry for fifty
  years
• 1946
• Lack of materials for vocational education
• Lack of technical schools
• Correspondance school
• 1972
• General education
• Télé-Université
• 80s
• Popular education and cegep level courses
• Business minded organisation
• Registrations peaked

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A brief history of DE at the secondary level in
Québec

• Early 90s
• A DE institution dedicated to the cegep level is
  created CCFD
• First courses offered in English
• The planned decline of DE at the secondary
  level takes place
• 1994
• A liaison committee is created CLIFAD
• with SOFAD, CCFD and Télé-université
• 1995-96
• End of the single unit for DE at the Ministry

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A brief history of DE at the secondary level in
Québec

• A new system with two subsets
• 1995, all services direct to the student
  population are transferred to the school boards.
• 1996, SOFAD, a central body, outside the
  Ministry, administered by the school boards, to
  develop, produce or coproduce learning materials
  for general education, either in DE or in adult
  education centres.
• SOFADs mandate also includes
• to promote DE 
• to carry out studies and research 
• to foster the use of new technologies 
• to encourage partnerships

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SOFADA detailed description

• Produces for both French and English speaking
  communities.
• DE is only for the adult population, 16 years and
  over.
• More than 200 courses are offered
• All academic courses for Secondary 1 to 5, in
  French and in English
• Vocational courses in Secretarial Studies and
  Accounting (in French only)
• A few professional training and popular education
  courses (in French only)

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SOFADA detailed description

• SOFAD specializes in
• Technogical and instructional design
• Project management
• Quality control
• 28 people
• Project Coordinators
• New technologies consultant
• Advisors in R D, Institutional R
  Communication
• Digital rights negotiator
• Technical support, Integrator
• Client services
• Support staff

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SOFADA detailed description

• SOFAD outsources for 2/3 of production costs
• Subject matter specialists
• Researchers
• Authors
• System analysts and programmers
• Illustrators, Recording studios, actors
• Graphic designers and interface designers
• Content reviewers, linguistic reviewers
• Proofreaders and technical reliability testers
• Webmasters

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Major Recent Development and IssuesCourse
Registrations

• A continuous growth in DE
• 1995-1996
• 10 000 course registrations
• 2003-2004
• 25 000 course registrations
• (60 000 in adult education centres)
• An unequal growth of the registrations in DE over
  the territory

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Major Recent Development and IssuesGovernment
Commitment

• An Agreement about DE and e-learning in Québec
  School boards was signed in december 2003 by all
  parties concerned
• The Ministry of Education
• The FCSQ (Federation of Québec School boards)
• The ACSAQ (Québec English School Boards
  Association)
• SOFAD

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Major Recent Development and IssuesGovernment
Commitment

• SOFADs mandate is confirmed and expanded
• SOFAD is identified as the privileged partner
• Measures are considered about the organisation of
  DE
• Consortia
• Harmonization
• Financing
• Out of Québec students
• Youth sector

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Major Recent Development and IssuesGovernment
Commitment

• SOFADs mandate
• Learning materials
• Promotion
• Research
• Teachers continuing education
• Online preparation to the GED

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Major Recent Development and IssuesCustomized
Services

• A new sector
• New staff 6 people
• One big project. An agreement with the
  Environment Ministry makes SOFAD
• the producer of distance courses and
• the organization responsible for training more
  than 25 000 workers using or selling pesticides
  in Québec.
• Francisation (French for immigrants), a project
  in collaboration with the Ministère des Relations
  avec les citoyens et de lImmigration

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Major Recent Development and IssuesOnline
Learning

• Some operational principles
• All credit courses will be developed online and
  in print.
• Online and printed versions are available at
  about the same price for the student.
• Courses are designed for DE students as well as
  in-class students.
• Courses are also available to independant
  students.

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Major Recent Development and Issues Online
Learning

• These courses will be
• complete elearning environments providing all
  learners need to learn, and all teachers/tutors
  need to support learning in an integrated fashion
• self paced learning, and when appropriate
  collaborative learning
• within present school board/SOFAD structure

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Major Recent Development and Issues Online
Learning

• eduSOFAD.com
• SOFADs portal of online courses has three
  sections
• Students
• Teachers
• Administrators

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Major Recent Development and Issues Online
Learning
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Major Recent Development and Issues Online
Learning

• The challenge of development as a
  triangle

A balanced triangle
Time frame
Quality
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Major Recent Development and Issues Online
Learning

• The challenge of
• educational communication as a
  triangle

SOFAD
A balanced triangle
School Boards
Students
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Major Recent Development and IssuesVarious
projects up and coming

• The need for new materials because of the reform
  of the curriculum
• A portal for teacher training in the context of
  the reform of the curriculum
• A sub-comittee with the Ministry (SB, Cégeps)
• Online training about PLAR practices and services
• E-portfolio for life-long learning
• DE for the youth sector
• A research project about student support in DE

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Conclusion

• Beware of PowerPoints!
• Including this One!

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Contact

• Robert Saucier
• [phone]
• saucierr_at_sofad.qc.ca
• www.sofad.qc.ca
• www.edusofad.com