EDMONTON -- Edmonton school boards are scrambling to prepare for the start of online learning next Tuesday.
Edmonton Public Schools is still hiring teachers as it finalizes how many students are learning online, while Edmonton Catholic Schools hired 65 teachers that are currently being trained.
Jason Schilling, the president for the Alberta Teachers' Association, is concerned that at least 25 per cent of online teachers don't quite know their assignments yet.
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"Nothing's going to be perfect in how it's implemented right now," he said.
"Teachers want to be ready and prepared and have course materials ready for students."
Online learning will be different than it was at the start of the pandemic when Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena Hinshaw suspended in-person learning as the threat of COVID-19 grew in Alberta.
For 2020-21, students who chose remote learning for the first quarter will learn all core courses during full school days.
And this time, Edmonton Public Schools is working to have the technology needed for all children to learn from home.
"We’re looking at ways that we can augment the number of devices that we have and certainly one of the permissible expenses in the $37 million that we received from the federal government is to look at purchasing technology to help in response to the pandemic," Superintendent Darrel Robertson said.
Schilling is calling for patience while everyone figures out the best way to do online schooling.
"As we're sort of doing this for the first time and trying to figure out what works best for students and for teachers," he said.
With files from CTV News Edmonton's Amanda Anderson
