The President of Confederation College says the school saw this past year and they continue to see a huge increase in demand for distance education.
Kathleen Lynch says virtual learning is up 72% this year.
Lynch says ongoing shutdowns have actually been a blessing in disguise.
“We know now we can offer more programming across the region and we plan to do that next Fall. You can look forward to some new programming because things that people didn’t think were possible, now we know now are possible virtually.”
Lynch says their team tries to shape programming to meet individual community needs.
She adds one course they are looking at offering is a distance education, online PSW program.
She says there is a shortage of PSW workers across northwestern Ontario, their 88 First Nation communities and the entire province.
Lynch says the change in learning has come at a limited cost.
“We have used our existing learning platforms and existing infrastructure to do our distance education. And we continue to offer more programming through our distance education. So a lot of people like the flexibility there.”
