About Online School

Taking a look at an online school program that’s run the TDSB way reveals a truly innovative method for delivering instruction free from the confining walls of a classroom. Nowadays, it is a rare school district indeed that does not offer some method of getting its children extra instruction or courses that just aren’t able to be sandwiched into the curriculum. However, the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) has shown that it has the skills and talent — and technological savvy — needed to begin helping children find their way into an online school environment that truly delivers quality education according to every assessment criteria developed.

Learning in an online school — run and taught the TDSB way — is quickly taking hold among many parents and showing them that there’s a better way to add quality to almost every educational and career path in which a child may express an interest. Recent studies have shown that learning within an online school environment — when taught to children who are self-motivated and self-directed — can prepare children for the technological challenges they’ll be facing in the future. Complete online school educational environments are offered during the traditional school year while the virtual school environment — which differs somewhat in how many courses a student can take and when — is usually only available during the traditional summer months.

Consider how the TDSB has set up and constructed the online school and what it’s intended to do:

• TDSB has ensured that all online courses are being taught by accredited and certified district teachers
• The district also takes care to make sure that parents and students know just when exactly the online school will be part of their learning timetable for the day
• Online courses will also appear on transcripts just as if the student had completed the same courses in the traditional classroom environment
• All virtual learning environments meet the exacting standards set up by TDSB and the provincial Ministry of Education

But Is Online School for Everyone?

The online school environment isn’t for slackers or layabouts. Parents and especially children sometimes get the mistaken impression that being able to learn at home in front of a computer is easier than sitting in a classroom and receiving instruction from a teacher, but they’re very mistaken if they think that. Students usually quickly learn that they must spend at least as much time with their coursework as they would with their more traditional in-classroom coursework or they quickly fall behind. That’s why it’s necessary that parents make absolutely sure their children are motivated and self-directed and also highly organized before they allow them to enter the virtual school learning environment.

Students have a greater responsibility for learning in an online school instructional environment than they would have in a more traditional brick-and-mortar school. This is almost solely because they are responsible for keeping up with coursework that is often assessed and tested far more than in the traditional classroom environment. And though some students think that sitting in front of a computer will enable them to do many other things such as play on social networking websites at the same time, they usually find themselves quickly disabused of that notion once they have gone through the online orientation and the introductory module that TDSB supplies with each course. Parents should keep this in mind before placing their children in the online school.