Tuia Te Hononga Tāngata, Tuia Te Hononga Ao: Taking the Pulse of Distance Learning in Aotearoa New Zealand

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“New Zealand’s future becomes more and more a race between education and economic stagnation and social dislocation… The need to build a learning culture is seen as critical to our success as a nation – the question is, how to do this within the resources available and in a way appropriate to New Zealand’s own cultural values.” (Buckrell et al., 1992, p. 8)

New Zealand has a long history of distance education in the schooling sector.1 This has been driven primarily by the need to address issues of access to educational opportunities for all learners. The need to provide an education for learners in rural and remote parts of the country where daily access to physical schools wasn’t possible led to the establishment of the Correspondence School (now Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu) in 1922 (Rumble, 1989). During its first year of operation, the Correspondence School served approximately 100 primary students and “all the lessons and letters to students were written by hand by the School’s first teacher, Miss Janet Mackenzie” (Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu, n.d., ¶ 1). By 1928, the school had grown to 720 primary students and the first group of secondary students was admitted with an initial cohort of 50 students. The 1930s saw the roll of the Correspondence School grow to approximately 2000 students, and it also saw the introduction of educational radio broadcasts as a part of the school’s delivery model. 

Seventy years later saw the establishment of the e-Section (Wenmoth, 2005), a separate unit within the larger Correspondence School, charged with establishing models of practice to leverage the synchronous and asynchronous affordances of the online environment, and to introduce and establish online learning systems and practices across the wider school. As a result of this work, the Correspondence School was also among the first in the schooling sector to experiment with online delivery and the use of video conferencing in the early 2000s (Roberts, 2009; Wenmoth, 2005), and began to offer online courses through the VLN brokerage site in 2002 (Roberts, 2010). 

Since then, the Correspondence School has continued to be innovators in the provision of online education, establishing seamless integration of digital systems to manage the creation of course content for online provision as well as the systems and processes for engaging with learners and their learning online. It is important to note here that during the past 30 years the students the Correspondence School caters for has expanded well beyond the traditional ‘farming and lighthouse keepers’ kids’ for which it was originally established. Of the current roll approximately 50% of the students are already attending physical schools somewhere in the country, but are dual-registered with the Correspondence School in order to gain access to particular subjects not available to them in the school they are attending. This is the same cohort of learners within our system that is also being catered for by some of the other online learning providers that have emerged over recent years.

Gradual Shift from Distance to Virtual

The groundwork for the social and political landscape that identified the need for what was to become the current state of virtual learning was undertaken in 1992. The trigger here was the release of the Consultel Report to the Prime Minister and cabinet, titled The Use of Telecommunications Technologies for the Enhancement of Educational Services. The impetus for this report came from the “Education for Enterprise” conference, held in February 1992, where Prime Minister Jim Bolger stated he wanted to explore further how telecommunications might be put to better use for the development of interactive learning systems for application in a wide variety of educational and training settings. According to the report, the key problems to be solved in the context of the education system were equity and cost. Equity because not all New Zealanders have adequate access to education and training, and cost because the cost of traditional education and training is such that it is difficult to quickly increase numbers at the post compulsory level and to enhance opportunities in the compulsory (i.e., schooling) sector. 

It is important to understand here that the Consultel report was commissioned before the advent of the world wide web, at a time when the major technological breakthrough offering greater online speed was the integrated services digital network (ISDN). This technological reality was evident in the solutions considered in the report, and the recommendations it made, including:

  • changes to funding mechanisms that would allow distance and open learning providers access to appropriate technology;
  • further scoping work to be undertaken and the establishment of a working group to understand the extent of need in the context; and
  • provide targeted support for three technologies recommended:
    • broadcasting (radio and TV and video recorders) 
    • teleconferencing (exploiting benefits of ISDN) – including telephone, voice made, private networks, early audio and video-conferencing
    • computer mediated communications – email, access to online databases, online submission of assignments, etc.

It was around this time that many rural area schools were facing challenges with providing a wide range of curricular opportunities, particularly in the senior secondary levels. These challenges led seven area schools in the Canterbury region to create the Canterbury Area School’s Association Technology project (CASAtech).

By the beginning of the 1994 school year these seven area schools were linked by using an audio-graphics system, with each school allocating a teacher to teach one course and students then, from any of the seven schools, could enrol in that course (Wenmoth, 1996). The audiographics technology allowed the schools to be linked together online, and for the courses to be distributed among the participating schools. In 1996, three secondary schools joined CASAtech and the project was re-visioned as the Canterbury Technology Schools Project (CANTAtech).

Finally, there have been numerous other e-learning and ICT initiatives established in New Zealand in recent decades. Many of these initiatives began around the same time as the CASAtech initiative, prior to the establishment of the VLN (and many of its early e-learning clusters). Some of these have even included aspects of virtual learning, and even those that did not include this method of instructional delivery often provided valuable lessons for future initiatives. For example, the linking of Stratford High School to Taranaki Polytechnic (Stevens, 1994), the North Shore Schools Net and the South Auckland Schools Net (Selby et al., 2005), and the Top of the South Island technology project or TOSItech (Stevens, 1995), just to name a few. Each of these pioneering initiatives, regardless of the presence of virtual learning, provided guidance to the distance and virtual learning that would follow.

A New Technological Era – Video Conferencing

The early 2000s saw the introduction of video conferencing as a platform for connecting these schools and clusters – replacing the original audio-graphics technologies. Video conferencing was regarded as a more desirable platform for the synchronous aspect of online learning as it enabled the more immediate and ‘intimate’ connection between learners and their teacher that the audio-graphics technologies didn’t, as they provided voice-only communications at the time supplemented by interactive online graphics sharing.

The first use of video conferencing in a formal cluster setting began in 2000 with the establishment of the Kaupapa Ara Whakawhiti Mātauranga (KAWM) cluster (Roberts, 2009). The KAWM project encompassed a number of school improvement initiatives funded by the Ministry of Education that aimed to:

  • improve student achievement,
  • improve school performance,
  • strengthen school and community relationships,
  • upgrade school information and communication technologies (ICT) infrastructure, and
  • improve teachers’ professional capability through ICT.

The project was described as:

“…focused on using [ICT] to strengthen curriculum delivery and broaden options for Māori learners in schools, including boarding schools… [and addressed] the shortage of Māori-medium subject specialist teachers at the secondary level through the provision of ‘expert teachers’ to provide lessons via video conferencing across a number of Wharekura sites.” (Stevens & Moffatt, 2003, p. 131)

The KAWM project eventually included five separate clusters (Waiti, 2005), involving more than 20 schools from Kaitaia to Invercargill (Roberts, 2009). Two of these clusters were provided with video conferencing equipment and ISDN lines (where available) to enable them to connect with each other and share courses for learners. The other clusters were focused more on strengthening the internal use of their ICT infrastructure and developing teacher capability. 

FarNet began in 2001 as one of four pilot projects funded under the Digital Opportunities Programme (DigiOps) (Stevens & Moffatt, 2003), with an initial community of 10 area and secondary schools in Northland (Barbour & Bennett, 2013; Bennett & Barbour, 2012). The original purpose of the FarNet e-learning cluster was to create a virtual professional development community that used a dedicated website to foster the learning communities (Rivers & Rivers, 2004). One of the benefits of this project was that it allowed the participating schools to obtain the necessary hardware and software, as well as the expertise among the teaching faculty, to be able to leverage these tools for later use in distance education (Parr & Ward, 2005). One of things to notice about the FarNet e-learning cluster was that the cluster was not primarily developed for the purpose of delivering distance education. In fact, it wasn’t until it entered its second phase of development – following the completion of the project outlined under the DigiOps funding – that FarNet schools began to offer distance education. This was a common trend among some of the early e-learning clusters, many of which were also created under a variety of national funding programmes (Powell & Barbour, 2012). 

Similarly, in 2002 the OtagoNet e-learning cluster was established by the Community Trust of Otago as a partnership between seven schools to create a learning community for teachers (Treadwell, 2010). OtagoNet’s vision was “to create a broadband VLN linking the Otago Secondary and Area Schools, to strengthen existing relationships and collaboration of these rural and geographically dispersed schools” (Pullar & Brennan, 2008, p. 9). Subsequently, Lai and Pratt (2009) described the OtagoNet as a small cluster of nine rural schools – ranging from between 10 and 275 high school students – in a region that has an average of 15 people/kilometre2. At the time of the development of the OtagoNet Cluster and its use of video conferencing to enable the connection between schools, the eSection at the Correspondence School was being established to transition the print-based activity of the Correspondence School to a virtual (online) learning environment. The OtagoNet cluster approached the eSection to assist with providing courses they weren’t able to provide locally. Initially there were six courses provided which, combined with the nine being provided by schools in the cluster, enabled all of the learners in the OtagoNet cluster in their final two years of school to access all of their first-choice subject options in that year. Other clusters soon came on board in the years that followed (e.g., CoroNet in the Coromandel region).

From these initial initiatives, in partnership with the Ministry of Education, a decision was made to formally organise the existing e-learning clusters into a larger, national effort known as the Virtual Learning Network (VLN) (Wenmoth, 2011). The VLN was designed to provide a brokerage service where participating clusters could advertise the courses they were offering and make them available to schools in other regions. The VLN also provided the mechanism where initially the Correspondence School, and later the Ministry of Education, provided centralised services – such as a video conferencing bridge and asynchronous e-learning tools (e.g., a learning management system, an e-portfolio system, etc.); while the individual e-learning clusters would be responsible for using these tools to provide online distance education and other services based on their individual, local needs. In addition to the brokering of services, in 2002 the Correspondence School and the Ministry of Education also facilitated the development of the Learning Communities Online Handbook to assist schools in the formation of e-learning clusters (Ministry of Education, 2011). This document provided those interested in forming a new cluster or leading existing clusters a matrix to guide development through the phases from initial conception to implementation. Finally, several tertiary institutions had also begun to provide courses for secondary students through the VLN brokerage site (e.g., Matua Raki, NatColl, NorthTec, Otago Polytechnic, Telford Rural Polytechnic, Waikato Institute of Technology, etc.).

Growth and Sustainability

Many have argued that various information communications technology (ICT) strategies put in place by the Ministry of Education have accounted for the growth in the effective use of ICT to support learning and teaching (Bolton, 2008; Cowie et al., 2008; Dewstow & Wright, 2005; Sahin & Ham, 2010; Wright, 2010); while others have argued that the funding programmes that accompanied these strategies, and other policy documents, have created a framework to encourage the growth of the VLN e-learning clusters and the use of virtual learning (Powell & Barbour, 2011). One such funding initiative in 2007 was the provision of 18 administrative salary units to support the leadership of the e-learning clusters (known as ePrincipals).

The purpose of these ePrincipals was to lead the various e-learning clusters, to build relationships with other clusters, and to move the cluster towards a sustainable model of development over the 2008 and 2009 school years. Roberts (2010) described the specific tasks of the ePrincipal as:

  • develop and refine policy and procedure for the delivery of online learning,
  • share best practice,
  • provide professional learning opportunities for teacher,
  • develop student support networks and structures,
  • set up programmes such as Scholarship Mentoring, and Gifted and Talented programmes,
  • identify areas for innovation,
  • support research,
  • explore opportunities to include the wider community,
  • support new schools and clusters as they join the VLN. (p. 148)

In an examination of the leadership of e-learning clusters, Stevens (2011) found that the responsibilities of the ePrincipal were open to interpretation by the individual who held the position. Further, Barbour’s (2011) evaluation of the sustainability and maturity of New Zealand’s e-learning clusters, concluded that “based upon the current responsibilities assumed by the ePrincipals, the Ministry of Education is justified to not provide funding for approximately 15 ePrincipals. The business case simply does not exist” (p. 40).

The fact that the ePrincipal model was based on funding provided directly from the government, with no mechanism for the contribution of funds from the individual schools or clusters, combined with a lack of a coherent view of the role of the ePrincipal, contributed to why the funding for this initiative was not continued following the 2009 school year. Even following the end of the external funding for the ePrincipal, in a study of educational leadership in two of the VLN e-learning clusters, Stevens (2011) found that the role of the ePrincipal was “complex, [relied] heavily on goodwill and collaboration, and [occurred] in a challenging environment” (vi). Stevens underscored the unsystematic nature of the role by recommending that “eLearning clusters’ management committees should also review their leadership roles, with a view to developing greater responsibilities for instructional leadership, particularly by adopting a much more strategic approach to improving student learning” (p. 112). This recommendation was consistent with Barbour’s (2011) guidance that the role of the ePrincipal become more defined.

However, even with struggles to remain financially sustainable, by 2009 it was reported that the VLN represented approximately 20 individual e-learning clusters (Compton et al., 2009). These clusters were brokering over 160 online courses and related professional and organisational development (Bolstad & Lin, 2009), representing 1401 student enrolments from 252 schools, in 212 different courses, taught by 154 different distance or e-teachers (Roberts, 2009). With this growth came the need for establishing more sustainable models of support and development into the future. In April 2010, the VLN-Community (VLN-C) was officially constituted to formalise and extend the co-operation between the individual e-learning clusters (Wenmoth, 2011). This initiative was supported by the Ministry of Education, within its ICT professional development (ICTPD) budget, as a way of enabling a greater degree of collaboration, support, and sharing of ideas among members of the different groups being formed. At the same time some rationalisation began to occur within the VLN. For example the former CANTAtech and AorakiNet e-learning clusters merged to form the CantaNet e-learning cluster. Further, new funding initiatives to explore the potential of blended learning encouraged the development of super clusters, such as the cooperation of 30 schools from the CantaNet and WestNet clusters to form the Southern Central Divide ICTPD cluster (Parkes et al., 2011).

The Emergence of Urban “School Loops”

While the history of distance and virtual learning in New Zealand was focused on serving students located in schools in rural jurisdictions for decade, the turn of the millennium witnessed a change in this geographic focus. The roll-out of the fibre networks across New Zealand saw increased activity among schools in urban areas keen to take advantage of the opportunities this connectivity would provide. In 2007 five regions were allocated funding from the Broadband Initiative Fund to enable them to implement a regional broadband trial. Educators from each region formed an alliance to ensure that the needs of schools became a primary focus of the activity in each region. This small group of the original urban loops formed the Super Loop Group to provide an informal connection between educators in each of the five regions as a means of exchanging ideas and experiences. The Super Loop group met together at infrequent intervals as required to formulate a coordinated and strategic approach to various themes or issues, common to all areas, and has developed position papers to help inform Ministry of Education thinking and briefing papers. The Super Loop established itself as a representative group of mostly urban schools in 12 regions, and also included representation from the VLN-C, all of who were pioneering and/or planning the collaborative development and use of the Ultra-fast Broadband in Schools (UFBiS) networks that were being rolled out by the government in New Zealand before the end of 2016 (Ministry of Education, 2012).

Over this time the number of urban loops grew. In his report, Zwimpfer (2010) described the development of these urban-based loops – such as the ‘Nelson Loop,’ ‘Wellington Loop,’ ‘North Shore Education Access Loop,’ and ‘Greater Christchurch Schools Network’ (GCSN) – as designed to provide schools a reliable, high speed Internet access through a fibre-based loop. Most of these ‘loops’ were coordinated by various forms of committee or trust, acting on behalf of the local schools to provide technical advice and support for schools connecting to the fibre network. In addition, these groups provided guidance and support for a range of educational programmes and initiatives to drive the uptake and use of the fibre once connected. Many of these loops engaged in some level of connection with the VLN schools as they looked for ways to expand the learning opportunities of their students. Some such as the Wellington Loop and GCSN became active in promoting a localised sharing of subject expertise among schools within their region in much the same way as the VLN schools had been doing.

In one of the only examples of an urban distance learning programme within the VLN-C, in 2012 a group of schools in the Auckland area came together to form the HarbourNet e-learning cluster (Barbour & Siko, 2020). However, the origins of this cluster can be traced back a year prior, when Orewa College affiliated with the FarNet VLN cluster and Ormiston Senior College joined the OtagoNet VLN cluster with the intention of becoming members of these networks to acquire practical knowledge about virtual learning environments and gain insights into the functioning of two well-established e-learning clusters. The following year, Orewa College took on the role of the managing school for a HarbourNet e-learning cluster that included a total of 13 member schools. Notably, Ormiston Senior College maintained its membership with OtagoNet for several more years. Beyond HarbourNet, the only other reference to an e-learning cluster operating in an urban environment was DunedinNet around 2009 (Roberts, 2010).

The Re-Development of Te Kura

Around 2009 the New Zealand Correspondence School underwent a rebranding and officially became known as Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu (Te Kura), reflecting its commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi and to providing education beyond traditional correspondence methods. During this time Te Kura expanded their use of digital technologies, including the implementation of an online learning platform to offer a wider range of digital resources and interactive tools for students. In addition to this platform enabling learners to engage with learning content in an asynchronous environment, Te Kura also introduced the use of a range of web-based video conferencing tools to enable more synchronous engagement with learners.

The changes at Te Kura weren’t only about the technology. They pursued a greater emphasis on personalised learning approaches, allowing students to learn at their own pace and according to their individual needs and interests. A range of support services were integrated into their service delivery, including counselling and academic support, to provide holistic assistance to students. In 2019 Te Kura secured government support to establish a Big Picture Learning programme to support learners who are at risk of disengaging from education. Te Ara Pounamu is Te Kura’s version of Big Picture, which provides a distinctive Aotearoa/New Zealand flavour to the core Big Picture model. It focuses on engaging ākonga in learning that is relevant to them, capturing their interests and passions. The combination of authentic, blended and online learning provides a highly personalised and flexible learning environment.

Seasons of Consultation

The Ministry of Education, and the Government of New Zealand in general, engaged in numerous consultative processes throughout the 2010s to better understand and inform the practice of virtual learning that had been developing over the previous two decades. While referenced earlier, it began with the Ministry of Education-funded e-Learning and Implications for New Zealand Schools: A Literature Review (Wright, 2010). This study examined the international literature related to e-learning from 2005 to 2009, and what lessons could be learned for the New Zealand context. The Ministry of Education followed this literature review by funding the Primary and Secondary e-Learning: Examining the Process of Achieving Maturity report (Barbour, 2011), which investigated “the development of virtual learning…, specifically the obstacles that e-learning clusters of schools face or have faced in their journey to sustainability and maturity through the lens of the Learning Communities Online Handbook” (p. iv).

Around the same time the VLN-C commissioned Wenmoth (2011) to provide a business case examining the future organisational and legal structure of a sustainable VLN-C. Wenmoth provided the VLN-C with three possible options: (1) establish the VLN as a business unit within the Ministry of Education, (2) establish the VLN-C Trust as an independent business unit (company), and (3) establish the VLN Trust as a professional organisation – with a strong recommendation for the second option. Two years later, CORE Education funded Virtual Learning as an Impetus for Educational Change: Charting a Way Forward for Learning in New Zealand (Barbour & Wenmoth, 2013), which examined the recommendations outlined by Barbour (2011) and Wenmoth (2011) in an effort to consolidate the guidance that was being suggested for the future of virtual learning in New Zealand. This CORE Education report recommended a single, national body would have responsibility for providing and supporting asynchronous and synchronous tools for virtual learning, developing and maintaining a repository of online course content that is available to users free-of-charge, and providing brokerage services for users that wish to provide excess capacity to or collaborate with others.

In addition to the reports funded by the Ministry of Education, the Parliamentary Education and Science Committee was also engaged in their own Inquiry into 21st Century Learning Environments and Digital Literacy (New Zealand Parliament, 2012). The terms of reference for the inquiry were described as:

The purpose of this inquiry is to investigate and to make recommendations on the best structures, tools, and communities, in both rural and urban New Zealand, for enabling students and educators to attain the knowledge and skills, such as digital literacy, that the 21st century demands of us all. (p. 9)

The inquiry included 48 recommendations that focused on how to provide access to innovative learning opportunities inside and outside of the brick-and-mortar school building through device distribution and connectivity (with several recommendations focusing on the newly created Crown corporation, Network4Learning) to teacher digital literacy ICTPD to access to digital learning content to Māori and Pasifika content and language.

Finally, as a part of legislative action (described in the next section), the Ministry of Education engaged Cognition Education to address the following research question:

What lessons can be drawn from existing online providers about teaching and learning in online environments and what conditions are necessary to support student progression and achievement?

Four main areas related to online distance education were examined, with a range of sub-questions addressed under each. The main areas were.

  1. The differences between online and face-to-face teaching and learning
  2. The delivery of pastoral care, guidance and support in an online context
  3. Required dispositions and competencies of online students.
  4. The development of online learning content and materials. (Blewden et al., 2018, p. 1)

The On-line Distance Education Research Final Report was released in February 2018. Even though Cognition Education engaged in a document and literature review, conducted an online survey, and undertook interviews with key stakeholders and students, the report itself was largely disappointing. Unfortunately, the authors’ lacked familiarity with the field and its rich history, and the focus of the report – and the recommendations offered – were primarily based on international experiences or perspectives from those only tangentially involved in the practice of distance and virtual learning.

Legislation Changes and the Introduction of COOLs

Despite the operation of these virtual learning networks and local ‘loops’ for over two decades, and multiple consultative processes, there was no real change to the legislative frameworks or funding mechanisms until 2017. The Education (Update) Amendment Act introduced the concept of Communities of Online Learning (CoOLs), which were aimed to provide a framework for accredited online learning providers to operate within the education system (Government of New Zealand, 2017). The introduction of CoOLs coincided with a broader shift in the education landscape, where students were given the option to enrol in accredited online learning providers instead of attending traditional brick-and-mortar schools. Some of the key provisions of the proposed legislation included:

  • Accreditation Requirements: The Act outlined the accreditation requirements for online learning providers, ensuring that CoOLs meet certain standards to deliver education online.
  • Regulation of CoOLs: It provided a regulatory framework for the operation of CoOLs within the New Zealand education system, including governance, funding, and accountability measures.
  • Enrolment Criteria: The Act specified the enrolment criteria for students in CoOLs, addressing aspects such as age, eligibility, and the process for transitioning to and from traditional schools.
  • Quality Assurance: It established mechanisms for quality assurance and monitoring of CoOLs to maintain the standard of education delivered through online platforms.
  • Partnerships with Schools: The Act allowed for partnerships between CoOLs and schools, enabling collaboration and support for students engaging in online learning.

These provisions aimed to ensure that CoOLs operate within a regulated framework, maintain educational quality, and provide viable alternatives for students seeking online learning opportunities.

Critics argued that CoOLs could lead to a fragmented education system, where students might miss out on the social interaction and holistic learning experience provided by traditional schools. Additionally, there were concerns about the quality and accountability of online learning providers. Further, many raised fears about the potential of for-profit providers being able to establish CoOLs, and pointed to the United States and the poor students performance in these corporate-operated, full-time virtual schools (Pratt & Williamson-Leadley, 2017). Despite these objections, the bill received Royal Assent on May 5, 2017 and the CoOLs were set to come into effect at the end of 2019.

However, 2018 saw the electoral defeat of the National Party and a coalition Government formed by the Labour Party, the Green Party, and New Zealand First Party. One of the first things that the new Labour-led coalition Government decided to do was introduce Education Amendment Bill (No 2), which – among other things – proposed to repeal CoOLs.

In 2017, the Education Act 1989 was amended by the Education (Update) Amendment Act 2017 to introduce a new regime to expand the provision of distance education through communities of online learning. The new legislative provisions allowed for distance education for part-time and full-time tuition, and enabled accreditation of distance education provision by public or private providers through a statutory accreditation system. These provisions are repealed. This will provide further time to consider the future of online learning in New Zealand, in the context of wider education sector reviews. (Government of New Zealand, 2018, p. 2)

The bill, along with the repeal of CoOLs, became official on May 19, 2019 – before the first CoOL was ever even proposed.

The Advent and Impact of COVID

The impact of school closures during New Zealand’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 brought much of the work of those involved with virtual learning in the compulsory sector into sharp focus. This situation created unique challenges for students, whānau, teachers and school leaders across the country. When news of the lockdown was announced, the Ministry of Education moved quickly to put in place a range of supports for teachers, students and families for the period of time that students and teachers would spend learning and teaching from home. The support for home learning was achieved by: 

  • providing online resources across three websites,
  • working with schools to ensure that all students had internet access or printed learning resources where this was not possible, and 
  • broadcasting two television channels – Home Learning TV | Papa Kāinga TV, in English; and Mauri Reo Mauri Ora in te reo Māori. 

The provision of online resources was achieved through working in partnership with Te Kura to open up access to all of their learning materials so that any teacher or student might be able to use them as the basis of their online learning. This was made possible through the immediate response of Te Kura’s LMS provider who established a ‘mirror’ site of all resources that could then be accessed without having to go through the process of enrolling first as a Te Kura student. Similarly, the VLNs were approached to find ways of expanding access to the online resources, courses and programmes they offered. 

Only a few teachers and schools ended up taking advantage of the availability of these courses and resources, largely due to the relatively short time of school closures and the immediate concerns around student wellbeing taking precedence over continuity of learning. The lessons learned through the process of establishing this access, however, will prove useful into the future as we look to establish a more resilient schooling system. A summary of key findings from New Zealand and international research, drawn from a synthesis of over 40 national and international reports and articles was prepared for the Ministry of Education following the lockdown experience (Wenmoth, 2021). It identified four significant findings:

  1. the importance of taking a coherent, system-wide approach to digital planning and investment
  2. the lack of universal access to technology, and a lack of the skills and capability needed to use digital technologies in ways that support effective teaching and learning, exposing existing inequalities in the NZ education system,
  3. the negative impacts of increased exposure to digital technologies by learners and teachers working remotely, and
  4. the considerable potential for increased flexibility in approaches to education delivery.

These recommendations were used to help inform the development of Connected Ako: Digital and Data for Learning (Ministry of Education, 2023), providing a 10-year strategy to guide the digital and data direction of New Zealand government education agencies.

References

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Barbour, M. K., & Bennett, C. (2013). The FarNet journey: Effective teaching strategies for engaging Mãori students on the Virtual Learning Network. Journal of Open, Flexible and Distance Learning, 17(1), 12-23. https://doi.org/10.61468/jofdl.v17i1.195

Barbour, M. K., & Siko, J. P. (2020). An investigation of the development of an urban elearning cluster. Journal of Open, Flexible, and Distance Learning, 23(2). https://doi.org/10.61468/jofdl.v23i2.375

Barbour, M. K., & Wenmoth, D. (2013). Virtual learning as an impetus for educational change: Charting a way forward for learning in New Zealand. CORE Education.

Bennett, C., & Barbour, M. K. (2012). The FarNet journey: Perceptions of Māori students engaged in secondary online learning. Journal of Open, Flexible & Distance Learning, 16(1). http://journals.akoaotearoa.ac.nz/index.php/JOFDL/article/view/105 

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1 This section is a revised and expanded version of the history presented in Barbour and Wenmoth (2013).