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Population: 1,178,681 Number of K-12 Schools: 780 Number of K-12 Students: 184,472 . Number of K-12 E-Learning Programs: 27 Number of K-12 E-Learning Students: 22,510 |
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.
Beyond the legislative and regulatory environment, the Ministry of Education also tracks distance education/online learning registrations for Prekindergarten to Grade 12.
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.
K-12 Distance and Online Learning Activity
As of 2020-21, there were currently 25 provincial schools in 19 school divisions, one independent school, and one First Nation educational authority are categorized as having online learning schools offering Prekindergarten to Grade 12 learning courses to Saskatchewan students. There were 22,510 unique students involved in K-12 distance education or online learning programs in 2020-21. This number is comprised of 8,696 students fully enrolled in a dedicated online school, 6,090 additional students experiencing schooling through distance learning facilitated by teachers in schools not dedicated to online learning, and 10,403 additional students who registered for at least one course delivered through distance learning.
K-12 Blended Learning Activity
Blended learning is a responsibility of school divisions, as such the Ministry does not monitor this activity.
Remote Learning
Spring 2020 Closure
Schools in Saskatchewan closed on March 20, 2020. The Ministry of Education did not mandate remote teaching during the spring of 2020 and any remote learning opportunities that teachers provided remained optional for students. The Ministry provided online resources that made curricular connections to health education, science, and social science as well as a resource page to support mental health and tips for remote teaching for parents and guardians. Teachers continued to create lessons to support individual students and the types of technologies used by teachers and students were listed as a school-by-school determination and no details were given as to what types were used. School divisions were encouraged by the Ministry to use multiple modes of delivery, which included delivering packets and books if needed for those students with limited online access. Grades for students were frozen from March 13, 2020, with the opportunity for students to improve their grades only. The mandate was to pass all students with at least a 50% grade, and no report cards were issued (Nagle et al., 2020a).
Fall 2020 Reopening
Saskatchewan schools had a one-week delayed start to the 2020-21 school year with enhanced health measures in place which included: classroom cohorts, physical distancing, and staggered start, end, and break times, dedicated entries and exits with signage to control student movement, outdoor activities whenever possible, no sharing of materials, spaced out desks, and alternatives to large assemblies (such as virtual gatherings). Technology was deployed to limit sharing and masks were not mandatory but recommended in grades 4-12, particularly where physical distancing was not possible. Grades K-8 used Google Classroom as their learning management system (LMS), grades 9-12 Blackboard. Remote learning consisted of both asynchronous and synchronous activities, and assessment and reporting continued as usual. For students working under a remote learning model, the Online Learning Center offered a curriculum for both English and French Immersion (Nagle et al., 2020b).
2020-21 School Year
The 2020-21 school year proceeded with in-person learning, but on November 12, 2020, Regina high schools moved to alternative days of learning to reduce their capacity by 50% and by mid-November several of Regina and Saskatoon high schools went partially online and in-person. By mid-December, all public schools in Regina closed until January 11, 2021, and other schools closed on a by-need basis. In March 2021, the province closed all public schools and students returned to remote learning, but no specific guidelines regarding synchronous and asynchronous learning, nor any remote learning supports, were found on Ministry of Education websites (Nagle et al., 2021).
References
Nagle, J., Barbour, M. K., & LaBonte, R. (2020a). Documenting triage: Detailing the response of provinces and territories to emergency remote teaching. Canadian eLearning Network. https://secureservercdn.net/198.71.233.227/sgf.292.myftpupload.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Documenting-Triage-canelearn-emergency-remote-teaching-report1.pdf
Nagle, J., Barbour, M. K., & LaBonte, R. (2021). Toggling between lockdowns: Canadian responses for continuity of learning in the 2020-21 school year. Canadian eLearning Network. https://secureservercdn.net/198.71.233.153/sgf.292.myftpupload.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/canelearn-2020-21-school-year.pdf
Nagle, J., LaBonte, R., & Barbour, M. K. (2020b). A fall like no other: Between basics and preparing for an extended transition during turmoil. Canadian eLearning Network. https://secureservercdn.net/198.71.233.227/sgf.292.myftpupload.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/A-Fall-Like-No-Other-canelearn-remote-teaching-report2.pdf
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.
In recent history, the delivery of distance education, online learning, and blended learning was guided by the Saskatchewan Technology in Education Framework (TEF), which outlined the roles and responsibilities of the education sector with regards to the use of technology in education. It contained a number of outcomes and indicators, in particular that:
- school divisions ensure distance and online learning opportunities were available to students;
- intra- and inter-school division learning opportunities were available to students with local support provided;
- distance learners have success rates that are equivalent to students in traditional classroom environments; and,
- assistive technology and technical support is available to students with intensive needs and/or school personnel supporting them.
Vignettes
- Sun West Distance Learning Centre (2016)
- Horizon School Division (2013)
- Credenda Virtual High School and College (2013)
- Credenda Virtual High School (2012)
- Saskatchewan Distance Learning Course Repository (2011)
- Credenda Virtual High School (2010)
- Saskatoon Cyber Catholic School (2009)
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/ |
2020-21 | Online Correspondence Blended |
1,500 full time 3,000 part-time 400 blended |
68 full time 8 part time 6 blended |
162 distance 10 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.