REVIEW OF Ontario Virtual School BY student, Connor Wong

(5) Student Experience

Ontario Virtual School provided a flexible and supportive environment for my Grade 12 English course, ENG4U. I appreciated the freedom to study at my own pace and the accessibility of the online resources. The teachers were knowledgeable and responded extremely quickly to any questions I had. The grading was efficient, and everything you did wrong was thoroughly explained so you could improve. If I were to change one thing, I’d add more group discussions. They were a great way to see how other classmates were doing and feel connected in an online environment. Furthermore, the book The Wars was good, but a writing assignment based on a book of your choice would have been an enjoyable and educational addition that I think would improve the course.

(5) School Leadership

The teachers at OVS are all very responsive and quick to grade your assignments. Any mistakes you may have made are explained in your mark book and outlined thoroughly so you won’t make the same mistake again. Furthermore, they have very streamlined methods of communication and specific office hours during which they respond, which makes it much easier to know when you can contact your OVS teacher. Overall, my teacher was great, extremely responsive, and I would suggest OVS to anyone who wants to get ahead in their academic journey.

(5) Teaching

I think the teachers asked just the right amount from me. Of course, since it was Grade 12 English, there was a lot of work to be done; however, it was a reasonable amount considering the course. Taking English at OVS gave the same workload that my in-person school would have given, but it also provided a much easier way to get feedback on your work and ask questions. My teacher did his very best to help me succeed and provided very good outlines for all of my work in case I made mistakes. Overall, the teachers at OVS do ask a lot of work from you, but no more than an in-person school would, and since it's easy to ask your OVS teachers questions, I think OVS is a great alternative school.

(5) Academics

English is a course where it’s difficult to say if the work is too easy or too hard. Personally, I found the work to be the perfect difficulty — it wasn't so easy that it was boring, but also not too hard that I felt overly stressed or overwhelmed. I believe the skills I learned in OVS English will be useful later in life, especially those related to essay structure and grammar, as these are very important skills for university and even the workforce. Overall, OVS work is not too easy nor too hard; it's just the right difficulty. You have to think about what you're writing, but you don’t have to stress too much over your work to the point where you're overwhelmed.

(5) School Life

(5) Admissions

The OVS admissions process was super easy and stress-free. I didn’t need to submit any documents since I was just taking a Grade 12 course in Ontario. I signed up online, paid the fee, and got access to my course almost immediately. The whole thing took less than 15 minutes. If you’re planning to apply, my advice is to just double-check your course choice and payment details. I used to think it would be complicated, but now I know how simple it really is. It’s a smooth process that lets you focus on learning right away. Furthermore, your final grade is submitted to OUAC extremely quickly, making university applications much less stressful.