One of the trends we reported in the 2022 State of the Nation: K-12 E-Learning in Canada annual report was that after a significant increase in the number of students opting to study online during the 2020-21 school year (i.e., the first full year of the pandemic), that there had been a general decrease in numbers for 2021-22. The trend was still upward, but on a pace that was more consistent with the growth that we had seen pre-pandemic (as opposed to the dramatic climb we saw when the pandemic was in full swing).
One of the consequences of this normalization of the numbers is that we are starting to see districts and boards abandon online tools that they had been using during the pandemic and closing online programs/schools (many of which popped up during the pandemic and often relied upon remote learning models of instruction). We’ve already discussed the Manitoba Remote Learning Support Centre here and here.
A few months back we noticed the CTV News report that the Peel District School Board was phasing out the use of Google Classroom, which saw widespread use by teachers during the pandemic – and focusing their attention on D2L’s Brightspace (i.e., the provincial LMS). Earlier today we noticed a short piece in The Sault Star that indicated that the Huron-Superior Catholic District School Board was closing its Holy Trinity Catholic Virtual Academy.
I’m sure we’ll be seeing more reports like these over the coming weeks and months. The important thing to remember is that if you were to draw a graph of the proportion of K-12 students enrolled in K-12 distance and online learning across Canada during the time that we have been tracking it, the line has a fairly consistent upward trend – with one year that skewed upward due to the pandemic.