REVIEW OF Ontario Virtual School BY Alum, Alexie Lansard James

(5) Overall Experience

I find that the lessons explain the concepts really well, and the website itself is super organized, making it easy to find everything you need. I love that for many classes you have the option to do homework if you think you need some more practice, and every time I’ve taken a course on OVS, my teacher was always very quick to respond if I ever had a question. Something I would find useful is an option to set due dates depending on when students would like to get the course done. I find that having due dates makes me more productive and gets me to finish the work faster; meanwhile, in OVS I found myself pushing the work back often. I therefore think it would be nice to have the option of due dates for students who want it. The only other thing is the cost. I understand that higher education is going to cost more, but if it had been a bit more affordable, I know I would’ve taken many more classes on OVS.

Looking Back

What I remember most fondly about my time at this school is how well the explanations were in the lessons and how helpful the quizzes and the end of the lessons were. I learned much better on OVS than I did at my regular in-person school because of how it was organized and how well different concepts were explained

Current Perspective

I now notice how helpful OVS will be for my future education, knowing I have now properly learned subjects I will need later on in university.

Your Advice

An honest piece of advice I would give would be to not hesitate to contact your teachers when you have a question and to make sure you’re setting timelines for yourself to make sure you finish the course by the time you’d like.

(5) School Leadership

Teachers in my case always communicated well with both my parents and me and were always very respectful and patient towards us. Whenever I had a question about either a topic or a specific assignment, they were always very quick to respond and responded in a kind manner. When it came to scheduling my exams, I was always informed of everything I needed to know beforehand, and extra info was very easy to find. I have no complaints at all regarding the teachers I’ve had through OVS.

(5) Teaching

The teaching through OVS was very well done. Every lesson was well structured, organized and very well explained. The little quizzes at the end of each lesson helped me figure out the concepts I needed to go back and review before moving on. In my chemistry class, the instructions for the labs were very clear, which was nice to see considering I know doing labs online is completely different than in person. At the end of each unit, there was a quick unit review, which I appreciated, and for my tests and exams, my teachers always gave me great feedback and sent me back my test fully corrected, making it easy to learn from my mistakes. The teachers were very fair graders, and I would definitely recommend.

(5) Academics

I found that the atmosphere of OVS was very different than most other academic programs I’ve used. I personally found it was a lot more independent for students, which I really liked because it forced me to push myself more and work more independently. It made me want to better myself and increase my grades, while also minimizing stress. Even the tests were very low stress because I knew that I understood the concepts well thanks to the well-explained lessons, and I really liked the amount of time that was given to complete those tests. It allowed me to show everything I know without being rushed through it and causing stress. I found it a very stress-free and interesting way to learn.

(5) School Life

I found that the school life with OVS was great. It was very flexible, meaning I could create my own routine without school cutting into other parts of my life. I was able to figure out different ways to manage my time, and never stressed too much about it knowing the fact I had 365 days to finish the course. Although I never used the full year to complete a class through OVS, it was much less stressful knowing I could take that bit of extra time on a specific concept if I needed it. That extra time also made me feel a lot less rushed and crammed with all of my other classes at the same time. I personally really enjoyed this school life with OVS.

(5) Admissions

I personally had a great experience with the application process; I found it very clear and stress-free, and I found that they definitely worked with me in order to make sure it was the right fit for me. It definitely helped me figure out if this was what I wanted to choose for some of my classes, and I’m very glad I ended up going through with it. Advice I would give to someone would just be to not worry about it and only do it if they think it would be a good fit.