Distance Learning | Northern College

Maybe you are thinking about going back to school to get ahead. Maybe you are looking for the opportunity to earn while you learn. Maybe you are doing something amazing like traveling or raising a family. Whatever you are doing, wherever you are, whatever you want to be, wherever you want to go…make education go to the distance.

Distance Learning with Northern College means that you can learn from where you are today and develop the skills for where you want to be tomorrow. We offer various modes of delivery including correspondence, video and web-based courses.

A range of certificate and diploma courses and programs are available through correspondence, online or blended delivery
Flexible options to meet your needs
Tutor and faculty support
Study independently from home or at one of more than 94 Contact North/Contact Nord sites located conveniently throughout Ontario, including Northern College campuses
Study online through OntarioLearn, a network of community Colleges that develops and delivers
hundreds of web-based certificate and diploma courses and programs

Video courses enable students at any of our four campuses to be in the same class, with the instructor teaching from one of the campuses. Northern also offers video systems that allow students who live in various Northern Ontario communities to attend school without leaving their communities.

Correspondence courses enable students to be able to take a course at their own pace. Students are able to start when it is convenient for them. These courses are paper-based, and students have approximately 16 weeks to complete the course.
Our web-based courses are delivered in one of two ways, synchronous or asynchronous. With synchronized courses, students attend “live lectures” in an online environment. These courses are delivered to anywhere that students have access to the internet. We also offer Centra, a web-based platform to taking web-based courses. In addition, we use Blackboard Collaborate. This mode of delivery is used when many of our student in a particular course are located outside of Northern Ontario.

Web-Based Courses. With asynchronous courses, most of the studies are completed in a self-guided environment with due dates for assignments and tests. Students have access to a facilitator who assists with any questions the student might have, and also provides feedback to the assessments the students complete. Northern College is also a partner in a consortium called Ontario Learn, in which students are able to take courses offered by several of the colleges in Ontario. The main difference is that the facilitator is located at another college within Ontario. Courses delivered through Ontario Learn may be delivered using Blackboard, Moodle, D2L, or other learning management systems.

Meet the Team

Eliisa and Beth are Distance Learning Officers, and Joy is a Distance Learning Clerk in the Distance Learning Department who help coordinate programming and provide students with the support and information they need to stay connected and successful while studying off-campus or in a program provided through distance delivery between campuses.

Equipped with everything from program maps to how-to guides, Beth, Eliisa, and Joy are the one-stop-shop experts who can help you get what you need. Together they provide direct support for the following programs:

Business and Office Administration
General Arts and Science
Police Foundations
Social Service Worker and Addictions Counsellor
Mining Engineering Technician
Law Clerk

Located on the Kirkland Lake campus, they can be reached by phone or email and would love to say hello in person if you happen to be on campus.

Kirkland Lake Campus: Room G112 – across from the gym
140 Government Rd. East
Kirkland Lake, ON P2N 3L8
Tel: 705-567-9291