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Population: 1,179,844 Number of K-12 Schools: 774 Number of K-12 Students: 186,084 . Number of K-12 Distance Learning Programs: 36 Number of K-12 Distance Learning Students: 19,142 |
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.
Finally, the Ministry continues to develop a policy for in-province distance learning, including provincial definitions for distance education, online learning, and blended learning.
K-12 Distance and Online Learning Activity
As of 2021-22, there were currently 34 provincial schools in 18 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 19,142 unique students involved in K-12 distance education or online learning programs in 2021-22. This number is comprised of 9,344 students fully enrolled in a dedicated online school, and 9,798 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
Fall 2021 Reopening
Schools across Saskatchewan returned to in-person learning for the 2021-22 school year with a curricular focus on learning loss… Students who did not return to in-person learning were able to attend Saskatchewan’s Flex Ed online virtual school [or one of the other online learning programs. Similar to these other programs,] the Flex Ed program was in place in the province before the pandemic and is funded by the government. All sports, extra-curricular activities, and drama and music continued but mandatory masking was required in all indoor spaces, including schools. Provincial exams were made optional for this school year (LaBonte et al., 2021).
2021-22 School Year
As the new school year progressed, schools remained open to in-person learning with local closures for COVID outbreaks. Interestingly, the government announced November 22, 2021 amendments to its Education Act “introducing legislation to protect teachers, staff and students while accessing schools… to ensure families can access schools harassment free while vaccines are rolled out for kids 5-11.” With the increasing spread of the Omicron variant across Canada and the province, no separate measures were made regarding school reopening in January as in other provinces and in-person returned as planned earlier. February saw the gradual release of community restrictions across Canada and the Saskatchewan government released the requirement for mandatory masking indoors on February 28, 2022 just after the proof of vaccination requirement expired February 14 (LaBonte et al., 2022).
References
LaBonte, R., Barbour, M. K., & Mongrain, J. (2022). Teaching during times of turmoil: Ensuring Continuity of learning during school closures. Canadian eLearning Network. https://canelearn.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Teaching-During-Times-of-Turmoil.pdf
LaBonte, R., Barbour, M. K., & Nagle, J. (2021). Pandemic pedagogy in Canada: Lessons from the first 18 months. Canadian eLearning Network. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gaNFXDCt44W9DaAC9iRAf33pDTKup2C8/view
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
- The Pandemic and the Greater Saskatoon Catholic Cyber School (2022)
- 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/ |
2021-22 | Online | 591 | 13 full time | 32 secondary K-9 |
| Prairie South Virtual School virtualschool.prairiesouth.ca/ |
2021-22 | Online Blended |
665 online 86 blended |
2 full time 17 part time 2 blended |
109 online 6 blended |
| 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 |
2021-22 | Online Blended |
~3,000 online ~160 blended |
15 full time 10 part time 9 blended |
~130 online ~70 blended |
| 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/ |
2021-22 | Online Correspondence Blended |
1,600 full time 3,000 part-time 300 blended |
65 full time 8 part time 4 blended |
186 distance 8 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.