Beaufort-Delta Education Council E-Learning Program

The Beaufort-Delta Education Council (BDEC) is the most northerly school board in the Northwest Territories, with all eight communities and nine schools located north of the Arctic Circle. The eleven members of the BDEC include the chairperson, representatives from eight communities, and two aboriginal claimant groups of the Beaufort-Delta region in Canada’s Western Arctic (Inuvialuit and Gwich’in).

The council, through the chairperson, gives direction to the superintendent of education who in turn, ensures that these directives are implemented by the school staff. The center for the education council in the Western Arctic is Inuvik, Northwest Territories, a community of approximately 3,500 people. From there, direction and support is provided to nine schools located north to the western tip of Victoria Island and south to the confluence of the Mackenzie and Arctic Red Rivers.

BDEC Technology Integration Program Update
Taken from the Beaufort-Delta Education Council Quarterly Newsletter
Volume 2, Number 1 – March 2010

This past September, the E-Learning program started our first online (Internet-based) course. Students in Aklavik and Fort McPherson can now take Science 10 from Samuel Hearne Secondary and still stay in their home community. The students join the class each day through the Internet. Students in the communities can hear and speak to the teacher as if they were standing next to the teacher. Students listen to the teacher, and they can see everything the teacher is writing on the whiteboard through a special software program called ElluminateLive.

In February, Biology 20 will be offered as the next online E-Learning course. A total of 19 students started the Science 10 course through the Internet using a program called Moodle to provide all handouts, videos, quizzes, and resources needed to be successful in the course. The students also traveled to Inuvik three times during the semester to complete hands-on lab assignments. Final exams are starting soon, and so far the midterm marks are looking very promising. Expansion of the E-Learning program to other BDEC schools will begin as soon as upgrades are completed to the Internet connections.

The material for this vignette was reprinted with permission from Andrew Samoil, IT Teacher Consultant from the Beaufort-Delta Educational Council.