As the technological extension of Ontario’s public education system, TVO’s vision is to create a better world through the power of learning. TVO provides learning opportunities for Ontarians through innovative educational products, in-depth current affairs, ground-breaking documentaries, and award-winning TVOKids resources both inside and outside the classroom. TVO is funded primarily by the Province of Ontario and is a registered charity supported by sponsors and thousands of donors.
TVO is Ontario’s designated provider of distance education in the province. We have a mandate from the Ontario Ministry of Education to provide an alternative source of public education in English and French. Our learning model is based on independent study and our courses are offered on an asynchronous continuous intake basis. We also offer exclusive GED (General Education Development) Testing in Ontario. Both of these activities are supported by our Student Information System. For more information, visit ilc.org.
TVO is requesting interested vendors to provide information and pricing for the purchase, implementation and on-going support of a student information management (SIS) system to support both our Ontario high school credit accumulation and our GED testing.
Currently TVO uses a bespoke (in-house developed) student information system that was developed by the Ministry of Education in the 1960s and ported over to the current OBM technology stack in the early 1990s. ILC courses are offered digitally through a bespoke LMS and on paper through the mail.
The Ministry of Education is holding an open process to procure a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) solution. The VLE solution will provide a secure online learning environment, which includes a variety of tools that facilitates communication, assessment, student tracking, user authentication, course management, and content management. TVO is participating in this open process and the primary reason for selecting a new SIS is to ensure integration with the Ontario Ministry of Education’s new Virtual Learning Environment. The Ministry’s VLE will integrate with the School Board's Student Information System to import data in order to create virtual classes, enrol and un-enrol students and export selected data to the SIS (e.g. attendance, grades, learning skills, etc.). We expect to implement the new VLE to deliver out courses within the next couple of years.
We are also looking to our new technology implementation as a catalyst to find efficiencies in school administration practices, to improve the quality of data capture and manage and to improve the quality and functionality of the SIS integrations.
The system provides not only core student records functionality but also supports the full range of operations support required for a school that delivers online and print courses within the province of Ontario to independent learners, to Ontario learners enrolled in Day Schools, to independent learners outside of Ontario who enrol with us directly, and who enrol with us through Affiliates.