What You Need to Know About OSAPAC

Do you even wonder how we have programs such as Photoshop, Frames, Word Q and Kid Pix available to all students in our boards across Ontario?  Or wonder why we have these programs and who selects them as the tools that students should have access to?

Well the answer is OSAPAC (Ontario Software Acquisition Program Advisory Committee).  This committee is responsible for the acquisition of provincial licenses for publicly funded schools in Ontario.

Currently, OSPAC has licenses for 87 different types of software, 37 of which are French Resources.  Boards may access these resources for free using OESS (Ontario Education Software Systems).  OESS provides software for all subject areas and grade levels.

An interesting note for teachers is that for most of the software licensed teacher have ‘take home rights’.  This is advantageous as teachers will be able to install these programs on their home computers to help them with their planning and mastery of the program.  As well, some parents will have access to some of the OSAPAC licensed software, allowing them to log on from home (ie. Bitstrips)

To access these programs, you will need to do a ‘Contact Search’ on the OESS website to determine your board contact person.  From there, your contact will be able to order the software through OESS.

OSAPAC does a great job of linking curriculum expectations and other resources on their site.  As well if you click on each link it will give you a variety of information such as; Description, Product Information, Distribution Rights, and Technical Information.  This is where teachers will be able to see if they have ‘Take home rights’.

Click here to see a list of the many types of software that are licensed in Ontario.

Click here to see a link that contains tutorials, pdfs and other links to software offered by OSAPAC.