Online Learning in the North | |
| |
Laura Waters of Grise Fiord on
Ellesmere Island is the college's
most northern student.
| |
Online Learning in the NorthAurora College in the North West Territories services communities as dispersed as any institution in Canada
Aurora College has been able to bring e-learning to more students in remote locations thanks to ongoing improvements in the availability of bandwidth across the North.
The Aurora College course “Teaching and Learning at a Distance” has been redesigned for delivery using the Web-CT platform in an online environment. This gives students of the Aurora College Certificate in Adult Education Program a chance to experience e-learning as they are studying the pedagogical implications of delivering courses at a distance. The experience includes web research, investigation of the availability and integration of Learning Objects, use of HTML in designing web pages ‘from scratch’ and modifying existing web-based resources. The final assignment is a complete instructional unit designed for online delivery.
The initial offering of the new ‘Teaching and Learning at a Distance’ online course had an 80% success rate. The students reported that it was a valuable learning experience and that they had never before realized the benefits that could be offered by online learning. They were also impressed by the diversity of information and resources available online.
Currently there are eight students enrolled in the second offering of ‘Teaching and Learning at a Distance’. They are in communities as widely dispersed as any in Canada. The student who is furthest north is Laura Waters, in Grise Fiord, in Nunavut. It is the northernmost non-military settlement in Canada, located on Ellesmere Island. She is using dial-up access to log on to the course and is an extremely active and enthusiastic participant. Laura is currently connecting at 49.2 – 52.6K and is very much looking forward to the imminent arrival of the broadband access, which is an important initiative of the Nunavut government in linking the communities. She reports that the technicians are now in Grise Fiord, installing the hardware, and that it has generated a great deal of excitement.
While not all Aurora College courses or programs are suitable for online delivery, we are looking forward to developing a increasing selection of appropriate programs to meet the needs of Canada’s northern residents.
|
