POLICIES AND PROCEDURES

Supporting Student Learning

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Program Development

The online environment is a dynamic educational setting. Courses, content and assessment will continually change. With this in mind students need to be prepared to meet the requirements of each course even if they change after they enter the program. All courses are designed following BC curriculum as set out by the BC Ministry of Education.

Students Moving From Site-Based Course Instruction to Online During the School Year

When a student terminates their enrolment in a course during the school year and applies for that same course at Burnaby Online the student and/or guardian must:

  1. Discuss the move with the current teacher informing them they are moving to an online course delivery.
  2. Inform the site administrator (VP and/or Principal) of the termination.
  3. Request that the site administrator (or designate) contact online administration informing them of the online course request. Information shared will include areas covered and any partial credit attained by the student.

This information is shared with the online staff and the application process can begin.

Student Engagement

Our enrollment is continuous from September to June and students can work at their own pace; however, they must be actively engaged (submitting work on a regular basis) in their course(s). If a student is going to be inactive in a course for over two weeks the student must contact and inform their teacher(s).

Students who are inactive in a course for four(4) weeks or more without informing their teacher(s) risk being withdrawn from the course.

Resource Deposit

Some courses have books that will require a security deposit. Once you are registered, and after you have received your course confirmation email, IF there are books, your teacher will  advise you to contact the office to arrange for the deposit and book pick up. The deposit is $100 for most courses, but for IASL11 and ASL11 the deposit is $200 (one time only, not duplicated for multiple courses). The resource deposit can be paid in cash, by cheque, debit, Visa or MasterCard. The deposit is fully refundable upon return of all resources in good and reusable condition, and withdrawal from Burnaby Online.

Resource Shipping

Burnaby Online will provide all necessary course texts. Students who live outside of the Lower Mainland will have their texts mailed to them by us, but must be returned at your expense. Students who are temporarily travelling will need to arrange for family members to pick up their texts and forward them, as we do not mail out of province.

Student Education Allocation

Each fulltime student (FTE) is given access to an allocation from Burnaby Online in support of their online educational experience. The use of this allocation has strict guidelines on the type of services and goods that can be purchased. The allocation is calculated based on grade, number of courses and start date. For additional information on the student allocation process, please email online.info@burnabyschools.ca for more information. For a review of allocation usage process visit the Expenses & Supplies page.

Computer Usage

In order to make the online experience as seamless and rewarding as possible, it is expected that students will use a computer platform that is compatible with Burnaby Online’s delivery model. We use a computer based program and are currently moving all material onto the Brightspace delivery model.

It is expected that students will be able to:

  • browse properly through their course with all files loading properly.
  • save work in a format that teachers at Burnaby Online can access. Possible choices are pdf, Word or rtf for written work and jpeg, bmp, or png for graphics. Other possible file formats may need to be created/uploaded and students must check with their instructors to find out what types these may be (for example: power point,  etc).

Computer Access

Supplying a computer to full time students is not an entitlement nor an expectation of online schools.

Languages Department Policy on Advancement

For students wishing to be placed in a higher level French or Spanish course, the department of languages at Burnaby Online requires that the student complete a minimum of three (3) units from the grade level they are currently registered in. Of these three units one must be the last unit. The oral component of the last unit will be completed on site or in the presence of an invigilator.

Additionally, these three units will be completed in the short time span of a two week period and a score of at least 85% must be attained on each assignment. This time span begins the moment your teacher has notified you of the respective starting date.

After an assessment of the work is completed the student will be advised to take a placement exam. Permission to write a placement test is not guaranteed and is a reflection of the student’s language skills and abilities as proved in the completed units and as evaluated by the teacher and the Burnaby Online Program

Elementary Student Advancement

Before any elementary student is placed into online advanced courses the following must occur.

  1. The site principal contacts the district principal in charge of Burnaby Online. The discussion will be centered on the student’s emotional, social and intellectual abilities. It should be noted that online is extremely demanding and requires a balanced learning profile.
  2. A set of exams are sent to the school to be completed by the students. The exam must be completed following an invigilation process.
  3. The exams are returned to Burnaby Online for assessment.
  4. At that time the online staff, in discussion with the online counsellor and site administrator, will ascertain if the online course is appropriate. No retesting will occur.
  5. A set of access terms and processes will be given to those students meeting the criteria for online inclusion in an advanced class.

Retention of Student Work

Student work (assignments and tests) will be retained by Burnaby Online for a period of one month after a student completes or withdraws from a course. After the one month period the work will be deleted from our server.