Canadore College
News Release
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Canadore fully supports yesterday’s announcement made by the Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities, Brad Duguid, to provide $42M of new funding over three years towards the formation of Ontario Online, an initiative aimed at expanding online learning in Ontario.
“This is very welcome news,” said Dr. Marguerite Donohue, Canadore’s Vice-President, Academic. “We are excited to be sharing expertise across the province to increase online learning options for students. We are looking forward to the launch of Ontario Online in 2015.”
The Centre of Excellence for Online Learning will provide students across Ontario with access to high-quality and leading-edge courses online. Courses offered through the member institutions will be transferable across institutions, saving students time and money and avoiding the need for course duplication.
Canadore has a long history of online learning and has offered course delivery over the internet since 1995. School of Sport and Recreation professor, Dave deJourdan, was one of the pioneering faculty members to embrace the concept.
“I absolutely love teaching online, it keeps me fresh,” said deJourdan.
“Obviously, as a professor, I teach my students new ideas and theories. In my opinion, the online medium is the perfect platform, because that’s where a lot of them ‘live’. They pick up new information more quickly because they are comfortable.”
Over 50 per cent of the winter 2014 semester student cohort in Canadore’s School of Sport and Recreation are enrolled in the College’s online delivery format. deJourdan says his relationship with his online students is every bit as strong as with their in-class peers because of the class and assignment structure, which insists on almost daily touch-points and mandatory participation.
“Online learning is no longer a convenience in the postsecondary landscape, but a necessity,” said Donohue. “As a college, we will continue to deliver high quality applied learning and augment postsecondary achievement and success with courses delivered online.”
Canadore will be submitting a proposal to deliver a number of online courses on the new Centre of Excellence Online Learning platform.
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