Online learning in an offline world

When Leanna Ellsworth decided it was time to continue her education, she also decided she wouldn’t leave her home in Iqaluit, Nunavut. 

She had a full-time job and an 11-year-old son named Jeremy. 

“It was not the right time for me to leave to go to a southern institution,” she explained in an email. 

Lack of broadband Internet access may prevent students in remote Nunavut communities from taking advantage of a new online program at Nunavut Arctic College.

Instead, Ellsworth enrolled in the Bachelor of Circumpolar Studies program through the University of the Arctic (UArctic), a network of universities, colleges and other institutions committed to cultural, environmental and political issues in the circumpolar region. UArctic organizes courses hosted by member universities, but doesn’t provide degrees.

Ellsworth was the first Inuk from Nunavut to complete the seven-course program, which incorporates online learning and cultural exchanges. This year, her home territory’s only post-secondary institution, Nunavut Arctic College, is offering an online course for the first time. The 32 students currently enrolled will be able to count the course as credit for the circumpolar studies program.

“Communities in Nunavut are remote, and only accessible by expensive air travel,” says Ellsworth, who thinks the new course will provide great opportunities. “Many people in Nunavut have families and other circumstances in which they are not able to leave to pursue continued education.”

Challenges of access

While online courses can connect distant communities, Ellsworth says there are a number of obstacles, including “limited or interrupted Internet connectivity, assignments and exams due in different time zones, [and] instructors who are not physically there to help you explain a question.”

Karla Hardcastle of Northlands College in Saskatchewan, who teaches UArctic courses remotely, says she makes sure to provide course material in both PDF and HTML formats.

“We make our courses ‘dial-up friendly,’” she says. “We don’t use videos. We don’t use anything that would be difficult for people with slow Internet.”

“Everything is text, for the reason that you can use text in any environment,” says Amanda Graham, another UArctic professor based at Whitehorse’s Yukon College. She provides students with links to videos, but following the links is never mandatory. 

Graham travelled to Iqaluit to help set up the new online course with Nunavut Arctic College, and experienced first-hand the Internet access issues that students face.

“Whereas all Canadians may have some access to dial-up Internet, that is not broadband internet.”

“All three nights I had maybe an hour’s connection before it went down,” she recalls. “It was really irritating and if it’s like that in the communities I can only imagine what it’s like to be a student and hope maybe at this point you can get online and maybe you can go to the course site.”

A digital divide

Nunavut has no wired broadband infrastructure, but according to the Nunavut Broadband Development Corporation all of the territory’s communities have access to satellite connections, which Graham laments could “go down at the drop of a hat in a solar storm.” 

Universal access to high-speed Internet is a growing issue in Canada as many educational, health, and governmental services move online.

Janet Lo represents Canadian consumers – particularly those with low incomes – as legal counsel for the Public Interest Advocacy Centre. 

She says since the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission doesn’t enforce a basic service obligation for Internet services in Canada, some people in rural areas don’t have access to high-speed Internet. 

“We’re seeing a bit of digital divide,” she says. “Whereas all Canadians may have some access to dial-up Internet, that is not broadband Internet.”

For people with access to faster Internet connections, the costs are often higher in rural areas – in both the North and the south – than in urban areas.

“We know, for example, with satellite that there are very expensive start-up costs – more so than with DSL or cable Internet. A consumer might be looking at set-up fees or equipment fees of almost $700-800 before they’ve even got an Internet connection,” says Lo. 

Until now, the CRTC has mostly relied on market forces to push better access into more remote areas. Robert McLemen, a geographer at the University of Ottawa studying how connectivity affects rural communities, says that hasn’t been enough.

The Inukshuk symbolizes guidance and promotes a sense of community--something this program hopes to acheive among students in remote communities.

“If you’re going on a strictly free-market model, companies like Rogers and Telus and Bell make more money by selling additional services to people who already have their service than they do expanding their customer base into rural areas.” 

“When you have a small population scattered across larger areas, you need more transmission towers per area,” he says. “It’s more expensive to reach them and there are a lot of physical barriers – hills, mountains, wetlands and forests all interfere with the signal.”

An enriching experience

Nunavut Arctic College received $5 million in combined funding from the federal and territorial governments to improve information infrastructure. 

The funds have gone to “increasing bandwidth and connectivity to campuses and community learning centres in 25 communities” according to the college’s website. 

Even with potential barriers, Graham says students gain opportunities through online learning that they couldn’t get in a regular classroom – mostly because they are able to learn from students in other Canadian communities or other countries. 

“Knowing that you can do it, that it’s possible to have [online courses],” she says, pausing for emphasis. “I think people put up with the inconvenience of the technology, because of the convenience of the technology.”

Educational attainment across Nunavut

According to the 2006 census, many residents in Nunavut have a lower level of education than other Canadian provinces and territories. A new program offered online between Nunavut Arctic College and the international University of the Arctic hopes to overcome barriers that previously restricted Nunavut residents from completing post-secondary schooling and raise the territory's education attainment levels to bring them on par with other areas of the country. Click on the communities below where students are taking this new online course to see the level of education acheived in that area and how residents stay connected.