Population: 1,181,987
Number of K-12 Schools: 780
Number of K-12 Students: 186,036
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Number of K-12 E-Learning Programs: 16
Number of K-12 E-Learning Students: 12,456

Note that these profiles are taken from the most recent edition of the report, please review additional annual profiles below.

Governance and Regulation

At present, there is no reference to distance education, online learning, or blended education in the Education Act, 1995. In recent history, the delivery of distance education, online learning, and blended learning has been guided by the Saskatchewan Technology in Education Framework (TEF), which outlines the roles and responsibilities of the education sector with regards to the use of technology in education. It contains a number of outcomes and indicators, in particular that school divisions ensure distance and online learning opportunities are available to students, that intra- and inter-school division learning opportunities are available to students with local support provided, that distance learners have success rates that are equivalent to students in traditional classroom environments, and that assistive technology and technical support is available to students with intensive needs and/or school personnel supporting them.

The Ministry is developing a policy for in-province distance learning, including provincial definitions for distance education, online learning, and blended learning. The Ministry will seek input from sector partners before finalizing the policy.

Beyond the legislative and regulatory environment, the Ministry of Education does coordinate a centralized directory of distance learning providers – the Saskatchewan Distance Learning Course Repository (see https://www.skdistancelearning.ca/webapps/moe-course_directory-BBLEARN/Home ). The Ministry also tracks distance education/online learning registrations for Grades 10 to 12 leading to Grade 12 graduation, but it does not track distance education/online learning registrations prior to Grade 10.

K-12 Distance and Online Learning Activity

There are currently 16 provincial schools in 13 school divisions, one independent school, and one First Nation educational authority that are active and recognized K-12 online schools. During the 2019-20 school year, there were 13,666 course enrolments involving 8,138 unique students in Grades 10 to 12.

K-12 Blended Learning Activity

Blended learning is a responsibility of school divisions, as such the Ministry does not monitor this activity.

Emergency Remote Teaching

Schools closed on March 20, 2020 and remote teaching began on March 30. The Ministry of Education did not mandate remote teaching during the spring, and any remote learning opportunities offered to students were optional. The Ministry provided online resources for families through their Ministry website. School divisions offered multiple modes of delivery, as well as the delivery of learning packets and books for those with limited online access. Report cards were delivered, but the grades were frozen from March 13 with an opportunity to improve grades.

Previous Provincial Profiles

History of K-12 E-Learning

A history of the Saskatchewan Government Correspondence School, which was established in 1925, can be found in the Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan entry.  It is important to note that the copyright date of this publication is 2006, and the correspondence school no longer exists.

Since 2009, all distance online learning opportunities in both French and English in Saskatchewan have been delivered by school divisions and other accredited service providers such as independent schools and colleges. In that same year the Ministry closed the Technology Supported Learning Unit, which was responsible for the delivery of English distance education courses and the Ministry-run French Immersion Distance Education School, eCOLE.

Online distance education schools have been in operation in Saskatchewan since 1999 when the Saskatoon Catholic Cyber School first started offering classes online.  In Northern Saskatchewan, an online school was established by the Keewatin Career Development Corporation in 2001 as part of the “Headwaters Smart Communities Project.”  The Northern Lights School division also established an online school to provide learning service to remote students at approximately the same time.

The provincial online hub that lists distance education course options for Saskatchewan students is being redesigned by participating sector partners to better reflect the current status of online distance course options for students.

Vignettes

Individual Program Survey Responses

Program Most recent response  Medium  # of Students  # of Teachers  # of Courses 
Chinook Cyber School
www.chinooksd.ca/school/cyberschool/Pages/default.aspx		 2016-17 Online
Correspondence		 1010 5 full time
14 part time		 58
Cyber Stone Virtual School
www.secpsd.ca/school/virtualschool/Pages/default.aspx		 2019-20 Online 1073 5 full time
4 part time		 48
Good Spirit School Division Distance Learning Centre
gssd.ca/pages/distancelearning.htm		 2011-12 Online 316 11 part time 17
Horizon School Division Distance Education
distanceed.horizonsd.ca/Courses		 2018-19 Online
Blended		 384 online 1 full time
12 part time		 44 online
LSSD Virtual Distance & Blended Learning
sask.blackboardclassroom.com​​		 2019-20 Online
Blended		 200 online
1000 blended		 8 part time
10 blended		 2 online
30 blended
NorthEast School Division
www.nesd.ca/Programs/onlineschool/Pages/default.aspx		 2015-16 Online 628 13 part time 28
Northern Lights School Division
edcentre.ca/		 2015-16 Online 481 5 full time 28
Prairie South Virtual School
virtualschool.prairiesouth.ca/		 2019-20 Online 492 online 16 full time
2 part time		 120 online
Regina Catholic School Division Learning Online
www.rcsd.ca/learningonline		 2018-19 Online 891 18 part time 54
Regina Public Schools ITI/Online
campbellcollegiate.rbe.sk.ca/		 2011-12 Blended 200* 4 part time* 4*
Saskatoon Catholic Cyber School
www.scs.sk.ca/cyber		 2019-20 Online
Blended		 ~2,000 online
~2000 blended		 8 full time
16 part time		 ~100
Saskatoon Public Schools – Online Learning Centre
olc.spsd.sk.ca		 2011-12 Online 823 2 full time
9 part time		 28
Saskatchewan Rivers Public Schools Online Campus
moodle.srsd119.ca/		 2014-15 Online
Blended		 1020 online
105 blended		 2 full time
3 part time
6 blended		 34 online
6 blended
Sun West Distance Learning Centre
www.sunwestdlc.ca/		 2019-20 Online
Correspondence
Blended		 1,185 full time
3,780 part-time
350 blended		 52 full time
6 part time
4 blended		 165 distance
13 blended

* This data is for a blended program only.  It does not include the online program.

To update this information, visit http://tinyurl.com/sotn-program-survey

Inter-provincial and International

Should a student in Saskatchewan enroll in an online course from another province or country the credits would be assessed for equivalency.  If there was an equivalency with a Saskatchewan course, the student would be given a Standing Granted credit on their Saskatchewan Transcript for the purpose of enabling completion of Grade 12, but no mark would be given. The specific content of the course is not examined as part of this process. The Standing Granted designation is only given for courses that have been completed and successfully passed.  The Credit-Transfer-Guide outlines the process to have courses from other Canadian jurisdictions recognized.

It is ministry policy that Saskatchewan schools are not permitted to offer distance courses to students outside the province except in specific situations. Those situations would include where the student has lived in Saskatchewan but is now temporarily out of the province; those students would be able to register for distance courses while they are away.