Over the past two decades, there has been little government, foundation, or private funding for the development of or research into K-12 online learning in Canada. Moreover, there has been little activity in Canadian higher education towards the research of K-12 online learning. Both of which have limited the focus and scope of education research into K-12 online learning. As such, K-12 online learning has continued to develop across Canada quietly, and with little dissemination outside of the country and between individual provinces. Over the past five years, the "State of the Nation: K-12 Online Learning in Canada" study has attempted to address this gap by examining of the regulation and activity of K-12 distance education in Canada. In this ongoing series, Dr. Barbour returns to CIDER with this year's State of the Nation. Among his findings:

Regulation continues to vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, including no regulation separate from the traditional brick-and-mortar system to significant and extensive regulation specific to distance learning. British Columbia continues to have the most structured regulatory regime and the highest level of K-12 distance education activity. The use of K-12 distance education is present in every jurisdiction and growing, although growth is still uneven and only experienced in certain jurisdictions. There continues to be a reliance on traditional or print-based methods of distance education delivery in some jurisdictions. Blended learning is often not seen as a part of K-12 distance education or K-12 online learning, with most simply seeing it as effective classroom technology integration. Distance education is still viewed as a substitute to brick-and-mortar in many instances, that should be used when that face-to-face learning not feasible or economic. Finally, teachers unions continue to be cautiously supportive of K-12 distance education, although there are growing concerns over workload and other working conditions.