Learning in the Virtual High School

High school students across Northern Nova Scotia, Canada, are attending classes without ever having visited their school. They attend their lessons on the Internet at the 'Chignecto Virtual High School', the brainchild of Chignecto-Central Regional School Board lead by Assistant-Director of Education Services, Dr Larry M Elchuck.

Using Marratech web meeting and collaboration software, remote students are able to join classes from their homes or local schools using just a laptop or PC with a headset and webcam. The groups can see and talk with each other and interact with their teacher sharing documents and applications over the Internet.

The project involves 13 high schools and adult high schools throughout the Chignecto Regional District with approximately 50 enrolled students studying Film and Video, Multimedia, Chemistry and Art, subjects which are not available in smaller local schools which typically have less than 300 pupils.

The students live up to 300 kms from the centre of the school board region, so the opportunity to join courses which are not available locally is a major bonus. The scheme has been so successful, more than 100 are already enrolled for the next semester with subjects expanded to include Calculus, Entrepreneurship and African Canadian Studies.

They get written instruction and assignments with 20% of virtual class time spent on real-time sessions with their teacher and other students.

According to Art 10 teacher, Christene Sandeson: "Teaching online through Marratech seems to be a relaxed form of interaction. The absence of a classroom has not diminished my ability to interact personally with students and I can tell from their email messages they are as concerned about their work as any student in the traditional system.

"Marratech allows me to be as fluent in my writing as in my speaking and I have even entered the personal realm with students in one school as they mourned the death of a classmate."

Dr Elchuck says the acceptance of the virtual high school concept at Board level has been extremely positive. "At first, there was concern in a couple of schools that real-time eChat using Marratech could interfere with their other courses, but this was quickly dissipated. The fact that student numbers have already doubled for the second semester is itself proof of demand and effectiveness."

"The region's small and somewhat isolated rural schools have a declining enrolment trend that is not letting up, so providing options to meet required courses was an important consideration. For example, where Drama 10 might be offered locally as the mandatory arts credit, the Virtual School can provide Art 10 as an alternative, as well as offering courses the schools may be too small to offer such as Calculus, Film and Video and Multimedia."

He added that as well as the opportunity to take courses not available locally and the chance to work with students from different schools, using Marratech provides key benefits not found in other on-line solutions. Real time collaboration and access to a group of teachers, plus access to just-in-time software tutorial pieces that focus on individual skill sets, helps complete the virtual classroom package, together with online reporting of student progress embedded into the portal.

When using the system, teachers are able to continuously monitor student activities using Apple Remote Desktop, and have the ability to retrieve and send assignments to and from students using an open source file management system. Student-teacher interaction levels are enhanced as a result of using Marratech.

"The vision of what we wanted was in place before we found Marratech. We needed cross-platform capabilities for audio, video and whiteboarding, and the ability to do application sharing was a bonus. Marratech was the right product at the right time and the inaugural year of Chignecto Virtual High School would not have been as complete without it."

Dr Elchuck is focused on bringing the very best of technology and education practices to the students and educators at the Chignecto-Central Regional School Board, in Truro, Nova Scotia. He has been heavily involved in the design and development of the technological infrastructure for the newly amalgamated school board insuring the seamless integration of technology and education both in the classroom and in the administrative offices.

He is experienced as an author, editorial consultant, researcher, workshop presenter, school site external evaluator and instructional designer, and holds a part-time faculty position in Information Technology in Education at the graduate school at University College Cape Breton. He is also one of approximately 300 worldwide Apple Distinguished Educators.