Canadian school district adopts Microsoft cloud technologies to put students first

Student-focused education

The Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario (CDSBEO) has a simple but effective philosophy: put students first. That’s been its academic approach ever since it launched in 1985. Today, CDSBEO serves 13,000 students in 39 schools across eight counties in Eastern Ontario, Canada, and it employs approximately 1,400 faculty and staff.

As technology has become more prominent in education, the board understood that to continue putting students first, it had to provide students and staff with effective tools while also safeguarding data. Consequently, CDSBEO began moving to the cloud several years ago as part of a strategic digital transformation.

“We understand that every child learns differently, and technology makes it much easier to address their individual learning needs,” says Natalie Cameron, Superintendent of School Effectiveness at the Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario. “We want to help them all meet their full potentials.”

A unified, highly secure foundation

The district’s executive team knew early on that it wanted a unified technology environment that students, families, teachers, and administrative staff could use seamlessly. It had already seen the problems that can arise from using a disjointed IT environment, so it decided to go all-in on Microsoft products. The district began using Microsoft 365, which brings together familiar productivity applications, Windows 10, and security features. “It was so frustrating when I couldn’t access my files from home,” says Cameron. “With Microsoft 365, I can now do my work from almost anywhere—I can’t imagine going back to not having that technology.”

The board is very happy that it chose one interconnected system, and it plans to continue evaluating other Microsoft technologies as needed. For example, CDSBEO is also considering using Microsoft Power Platform, including Power Automate and Power BI. “Microsoft was the only technology provider we found with a complete ecosystem, from devices to operating systems, cloud services, and security,” says James Proulx, Chief Information Officer at the Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario. “I don’t have a large IT staff, but by using the single Microsoft ecosystem, my team can be very agile and not waste any time.”

The IT team approached security as an essential, foundational element in data, identity, and device management, so CDSBEO adopted Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Microsoft Sentinel, Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps, and Azure Active Directory with multifactor authentication. “I now have a security group, and we monitor these great Microsoft security tools and react to any alerts as they occur,” says Proulx. “We have a weekly security meeting to review our Microsoft security score, which is high for our industry, and we’re continually trying to improve it.”

Fast pivot to remote learning and full cloud services

With foresight about the importance of the cloud, CDSBEO was fortunate to already be on a digital transformation path when COVID-19 emerged. Like school districts around the world, it had to pivot to remote instruction within weeks and quickly provide students and staff with the necessary tools. The district turned to Microsoft Teams to support remote teaching and learning, including conducting classes, doing report card interviews, and posting schoolwork. “At the beginning of the pandemic, we were far enough on our cloud journey that we were quite nimble and flexible,” says Proulx. “In March 2020, we got our virtual learners up and running in less than two weeks with Microsoft Teams.”

The district is entirely in the cloud as of July 2021. While COVID-19 has presented challenges, CDSBEO has also used its cloud-based tools to open doors to educational opportunities that students never had before. For example, community leaders, indigenous elders, authors, and other experts can present to many students at once, which wasn’t possible before or was only possible with considerable time and money for transportation and logistics. “We frequently use Teams to do virtual presentations to 2,000 students at once,” says Cameron. “We take advantage of what’s out there in the big world and bring it to students virtually to provide them with opportunities they might not have otherwise.”

Equitable device experiences

For teachers to conduct classes remotely or in a hybrid setup, all staff and students need access to devices. The board provides a mix of device types, including 200 Surface devices that are mostly used by administrators. All of its devices run Windows 10, which creates a consistent experience for users and the IT team. “Because of Windows 10, it doesn’t matter what level of learning you’re at—the device looks and feels the same,” says Proulx. “We make sure that everyone has a good quality device and can easily use the accessibility tools in Microsoft 365.”

Early in the pandemic, the IT team had to spend time preparing each device for a new user and include instructions with it. By moving fully to the cloud and automating some of those tasks, the team can roll out devices much faster. “Now that we’ve streamlined configuration, device rollout is roughly five times faster,” says Proulx. “Things like whether the student is signed in or needs to reset a password are no longer issues.”

Inclusive community engagement

As part of its student focus, CDSBEO also considers families and how to engage parents in a thoughtful, inclusive way. Before COVID-19, many parents, especially in rural areas, couldn’t physically get to schools for conferences or workshops because of transportation costs or lack of transportation. But the board has found that more families can get involved thanks to the shift to remote engagement.

“Because we have cloud-based technology, we can connect to many more families than we could before,” says Cameron. “Before the pandemic, we would have 10 parents join a parents’ night in person, but now 1,000 join through Teams. Even if they don’t have a laptop, they usually have a phone that can join Teams calls, and they now have better overall access to our teachers.”

Some students or their families have health risks that make learning from home preferable, and they can choose when they want to learn in person or remotely. Additionally, school districts still face unknowns with COVID-19 and might have to forgo in-person learning at a moment’s notice. When the district recently found out on a Thursday that it had to shift to remote classes the following Monday, CDSBEO was able to do so with minimal disruption to learning. “We had very little notice and had to pivot almost instantly,” recalls Cameron. “Thanks to Teams and Microsoft cloud computing, we can accommodate students and continue supporting their learning to meet their varied academic and family needs.”

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