LAR Posted February 16, 2017 Share Posted February 16, 2017 Opententacademy.com posted their course schedule for 2017 and 2018, and many classes look so good. I'd love some input as to pros and cons. I also posted this question on the high school forum to try and receive as many comments as possible. Thanks so much! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mlktwins Posted February 16, 2017 Share Posted February 16, 2017 (edited) I cannot speak to any of the instructors except Eva Goldstein-Meola, but she used to live in my area (Northern Virginia). We have a large homeschool community and she is VERY WELL known here. I have not taken any classes with her (we don't use IEW), but I know quite a few who did. She has a wonderful reputation. Edited February 17, 2017 by mlktwins 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneStepAtATime Posted February 17, 2017 Share Posted February 17, 2017 (edited) DD is taking a class with OTA right now. Our only real issue so far is that the instructor's mike makes the audio a bit annoying. Certain registers are too loud and a bit grating. The class itself has been great, though, and the teacher sends out a summary of what happened in class plus reiterating the homework assignment by email along with a link to the power point slides and a link to the recording of the lesson for that week. Super helpful. Questions have been responded to quickly. We have also had a good experience with Excelsior this year. I find the Excelsior platform easier to use but we are happy with both and if we can find the money DD has classes from both that she would like to take in the fall. http://excelsiorclasses.com/classes/ Another on-line provider that we are using successfully with my son is Outschool. Offers classes starting all the time. Some are very short duration, some are longer duration, some are a full semester and some are for two semesters. If you find a class you like you, many teachers allow you to even request a start time/date. If it works with the teacher's schedule and they can find at least 5 students interested then you have a class catered to your specific time needs. Much more flexible schedule. Prices vary widely. Quality also varies. They sometimes have wonderful sales where the classes are really cheap. https://outschool.com/ I think maybe all three are offering some sort of discount for early registration. Edited February 17, 2017 by OneStepAtATime 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LAR Posted February 17, 2017 Author Share Posted February 17, 2017 MlkTwins, thanks for your comments on Eva Goldstein-Meola. I emailed Eva earlier this week and received a response very quickly with excellent information and insight into OTA's full range of classes. I also heard back from OTA's ASL teacher; again, a timely response and thorough explanation to my questions. So far I'm pleased with the feedback from OTA's teachers. Thanks, OneStepAtATime, for your input. The issue at OTA with a faulty microphone is troublesome, as our daughter would be so easily distracted. We've also used Outschool for several classes; all classes have been very well done. As of yet, we haven't used Outschool for any high school credits, just fun extras. We are also looking closely at our budget to see how many of these live online classes we can swing this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneStepAtATime Posted February 17, 2017 Share Posted February 17, 2017 (edited) MlkTwins, thanks for your comments on Eva Goldstein-Meola. I emailed Eva earlier this week and received a response very quickly with excellent information and insight into OTA's full range of classes. I also heard back from OTA's ASL teacher; again, a timely response and thorough explanation to my questions. So far I'm pleased with the feedback from OTA's teachers. Thanks, OneStepAtATime, for your input. The issue at OTA with a faulty microphone is troublesome, as our daughter would be so easily distracted. We've also used Outschool for several classes; all classes have been very well done. As of yet, we haven't used Outschool for any high school credits, just fun extras. We are also looking closely at our budget to see how many of these live online classes we can swing this year. Different teachers I assume are going to have different output set ups, depending on what they have available in their home. The issue may only be with this one teacher's microphone/audio set up. Unless OTA provides the hardware for each teacher? Honestly, so far I have been very pleased with OTA and Excelsior. If I can get DD the class she wants through Excelsior and the class she wants through OTA for the fall I am happy to do so. I feel both are great options. (The Excelsior format and its use of the Powerschool interface does work better for us, TBH, but not enough that I would dump OTA). Outschool we have only had one class with so far so I don't have as much experience with that one. Glad to hear that you find them very well done. Edited February 17, 2017 by OneStepAtATime Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MedicMom Posted February 19, 2017 Share Posted February 19, 2017 I'm teaching at OTA this year. I've been very, very impressed with the professionalism and thought that has been put into everything. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneStepAtATime Posted February 24, 2017 Share Posted February 24, 2017 I'm teaching at OTA this year. I've been very, very impressed with the professionalism and thought that has been put into everything. Good to know! DD is loving her class at OTA and so far I am pleased as well. She has been working hard for her teacher and likes the format. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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