Distance Education at the Secondary Level in Québec Présentation à la réunion annuelle de la P/TDEA Victoria, B.C. Robert Saucier 29 septembre 2004

Distance Education at the Distance Education at the Secondary Level in QuébecSecondary Level in Québec

Présentation à la réunion annuelle de la P/TDEAVictoria, B.C.

Robert Saucier29 septembre 2004

PowerPoint Is Evil

• Power Corrupts.• PowerPoint Corrupts Absolutely.

The standard PowerPoint presentation elevates format over content, betraying an attitude of commercialism that turns everything into a sales pitch.

Edward Tufte, Wired, Issue 11.09, September 2003http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/ppt2.html

Content

• A SOFAD description

• A brief history of DE at the secondary level in

Québec

• Major recent development and issues

• Conclusion

A SOFAD description

• Adults

• Self-paced

• Materials

• In DE or in adult education centres

• Online and in print

• French and English

A brief history of DE at the secondary level in Québec

One administrative unit at the Ministry for fifty years

• 1946• Lack of materials for vocational education• Lack of technical schools• Correspondance school

• 1972• General education• Télé-Université

• 80’s• Popular education and cegep level courses• Business minded organisation• Registrations peaked


• Early 90’s• A DE institution dedicated to the cegep level is

created: CCFD

• First courses offered in English

• The «planned» decline of DE at the secondary level takes place

• 1994 A liaison committee is created: CLIFADwith SOFAD, CCFD and Télé-université

• 1995-96 End of the single unit for DE at the Ministry


A new system with two subsets

• 1995, all services direct to the student population are transferred to the school boards.

• 1996, SOFAD, a central body, outside the Ministry, administered by the school boards, to develop, produce or coproduce learning materials for general education, either in DE or in adult education centres.

SOFAD’s mandate also includes: • to promote DE • to carry out studies and research • to foster the use of new technologies • to encourage partnerships

SOFADA detailed description

• Produces for both French and English speaking communities.

• DE is only for the adult population, 16 years and over.

• More than 200 courses are offered:• All academic courses for Secondary 1 to 5, in

French and in English• Vocational courses in Secretarial Studies and

Accounting (in French only)• A few professional training and popular education

courses (in French only)


SOFAD specializes in

• Technogical and instructional design

• Project management

• Quality control

28 people

• Project Coordinators

• New technologies consultant

• Advisors in R & D, Institutional R & Communication

• Digital rights negotiator

• Technical support, Integrator

• Client services

• Support staff


SOFAD outsources for 2/3 of production costs

• Subject matter specialists

• Researchers

• Authors

• System analysts and programmers

• Illustrators, Recording studios, actors

• Graphic designers and interface designers

• Content reviewers, linguistic reviewers

• Proofreaders and technical reliability testers

• Webmasters

Major Recent Development and Issues

Course Registrations

• A continuous growth in DE1995-1996 • 10 000 + course registrations

2003-2004 • 25 000 + course registrations

• (60 000 + in adult education centres)

• An unequal growth of the registrations in DE over the territory


Government Commitment

An Agreement about DE and e-learning in Québec School boards was signed in december 2003 by all parties concerned:

• The Ministry of Education

• The FCSQ (Federation of Québec School boards)

• The ACSAQ (Québec English School Boards

Association)

• SOFAD



• SOFAD’s mandate is confirmed and expanded

• SOFAD is identified as the privileged partner

• Measures are considered about the organisation of DE

– Consortia

– Harmonization

– Financing

– Out of Québec students

– Youth sector



SOFAD’s mandate

• Learning materials

• Promotion

• Research

• Teacher’s continuing education

• Online preparation to the GED


Customized Services

A new sector

• New staff: 6 people

• One big project. An agreement with the Environment Ministry makes SOFAD:• the producer of distance courses and • the organization responsible for training more than

25 000 workers using or selling pesticides in Québec.

• Francisation (French for immigrants), a project in collaboration with the Ministère des Relations avec les citoyens et de l’Immigration


Online Learning

Some operational principles

• All credit courses will be developed online and in print.

• Online and printed versions are available at about the same price for the student.

• Courses are designed for DE students as well as in-class students.

• Courses are also available to independant students.

Major Recent Development and Issues Online Learning

These courses will be:

• complete elearning environments providing all learners need to learn, and all teachers/tutors need to support learning in an integrated fashion

• self paced learning, and when appropriate collaborative learning

• within present school board/SOFAD structure


eduSOFAD.com

SOFAD’s portal of online courses has three sections:

• Students

• Teachers

• Administrators



The challenge of development as a triangle

Time frame Quality

$

A balancedtriangle

Technical specifications

Standards

Templates

Instructional design process

CMS

Production of interactive content


The challenge of educational communication as a

triangle

School Boards Students

SOFAD

A balancedtriangle


Various projects up and coming

• The need for new materials because of the reform of the curriculum

• A portal for teacher training in the context of the reform of the curriculum

• A sub-comittee with the Ministry (+SB, Cégeps)• Online training about PLAR practices and services• E-portfolio for life-long learning

• DE for the youth sector

• A research project about student support in DE

Conclusion

Beware of PowerPoints!

Including this One!

Contact

Robert Saucier

(514) 529-2175

[email protected]

www.sofad.qc.ca

www.edusofad.com

http://www.sofad.qc.ca/






http://www.edusofad.com/

Documents

Distance Education at the Secondary Level in Québec Présentation à la réunion annuelle de la P/TDEA Victoria, B.C. Robert Saucier 29 septembre 2004