The Independent Learning Centre is Ontario’s Distance Education program, specifically focusing on high school education years, but also providing curriculum plans for the elementary school. Students who take their courses and programs through the ILC can receive an official government-issued Ontario high school diploma (OSSD).
Homeschooling Policies:
The process for enrolment is as indicated on our web site –student gets a homeschooling letter signed by the Board and selects a course. If the student has been studying secondary courses at home, we ask for the names of the courses and the topics covered. I would review the information and make suggestions as to the missing required courses for diploma purposes and make a judgment as to whether or not the student has the background to take a specific course, based on the information provided. However, the student is enrolled in a course at the onset.
Support for families is the same as for all of our students. We do provide counseling for appropriate course choice, assistance with coursework,etc.
We are, in my mind respectful and supportive of our homeschooling families and want to continue to award diplomas and secondary school credits with integrity and balance that supports all of our students.
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I have contacted the ILC very recently and the admission process for homeschoolers isn’t as simple as being a resident and having the letter from the school board. I was told that their principal (from the ILC) would have to receive all the curriculum that we have used in grade 8 (not just a list, the actual books) to review and approve. The representative told me this was to make sure that what my student learned was in accordance with the Ontario curriculum standards.
We were looking forward to my daughter earning a recognized high school diploma at home, but it seems that it will not be so.
If you have other information, I would really appreciate if you let me know. Thanks!
Oh no! Really? Wow – I had no idea that they would require that. 🙁 That’s very silly. Thanks for keeping us updated on what they require. I’ll update the original post to reflect this new knowledge.
My daughter entered into this program in grade 9 (last year) and I simply had to provide a letter from the school board and a transcript. I made my own transcript stating each class taken (including extra curr. activities), the amount of hours spent, who taught her, and I put an ABC grade next to each or simply wrote completed. I did not do a lot of testing so I didn’t have percentage grades for her. They accepted that no problems.
I registered with ILC as a mature student and wanted to earn my high school diploma. I spoke with one of the councellors at the school who informed me that I would have to complete 4 high school credits as a mature student. He told me I had to take Grade 9 Geography, which I did and received a credit for. I got half way through the next credit when I went on their website to choose the other two. I read that I had to choose from grade 11 and 12 level credits which was important information that I overlooked the first time I looked at the their programs. I thought why did this councellor not tell me this or remind me of this knowing what my goals were. I emailed the school and the reply was “we need a clear copy of your high school transcript” They also asked me to send all my other info such as resume, other courses taken over my life etc. They had this information already to come to the decision that I take grade 9 Geography so it was obvious to me that the transcripts i originally sent them were not to be found. So the outcome was that the grade 9 geography they had me complete was useless towards my diploma and basically I was starting from square one. I’ve since left this school of disorganization to find a better one. Also I found alot of misstypes and wrong information in their Geography course which led to confusion at times.
I also had issues with grade 9 geography at ILC! Overall, I was not impressed with course. But the other 10 courses I have or been taking was very good and organized. Therefore, because of the grade 9 geography issue, I wrote up the following reflection/student evaluation for unit 3 of the course:
Hi, I have noticed that this course is relatively out-dated; all the statistics are based on the 2001 census. Also, this course seems awfully hard in regard to its grade level, and I don’t think that I’m the only one to say this. Although I’m learning a lot from this course, I feel that the Key Questions are extremely difficult to understand, unlike the many other courses I’m taking to receive an OSSD. For instance, one of the Key Questions for unit 2 required me to write a report on a provincial or national park. When i was writing the report, I thought that they intended for us to write about the chosen park in a form that to be presented to tourists and visitors. Little did I know that I was Supposed to write an essay, even though the word ‘essay’ has so far not been mentioned in this course. Moreover, the teacher who marked my unit 2 did not realize that that the current expectations for this course is very different from the expectations I received in the course material, which was copy writed in 2006. I hope that this course gets an update by the ministry of education very soon. there is no reason why this course should the as incomprehensible as high grade, university level material. I do appreciate the ILC, and I look forward to enrolling to many courses in the future.
Please respond
Guess what the teacher response was:
“Thank you for your critical comment. We are well aware that these courses need to be updated.
Continue to reflect critically on the work you do”.
I just chose to leave the ILC. I didn’t have any problems as such with the administration, but the way it’s set up makes it very, very hard to finish high school in four years. I found a lot of the content easy, and actually found mistakes in several of the books which would have made it impossible to get the right answer (good thing I knew more than the textbook at the time). It’s really designed for adults who wish to earn their diploma more than anything…I would not recommend it to anyone.
I have recently completed MCR3U-C and found the course work really hard. As your comment, the course was not done in a way to enable great learning. (I had to struggle with material) It requires a lot of preparation and there is no tutoring past grade 10. Do you think video learning would make it better to learn and make it easier to complete their high school courses in four years?
Best
I would not choose ILC again. Staff is very unaccommodating and the courses are very poorly done.
I have to say my Geography teacher was great and very encouraging to me but the administration is not very organized and discouraging.
i took a course online at ilc, but they have problem for evaluation the assignment. the process of each unit may take 5 business day but they can not evaluate in 7 day..tomorrow is the 8 day that i send my assignment for evaluation, however, still nothing i get from the teacher..that is really make me upset..this school is really not good.
I took my GED through ILC, and it was great. I would recommend the GED study to anyone.
Now however, I am taking an accounting course, and have run into a problem. The response time is very slow, and the problem itself is in the material provided. The return time for the units is also long (min. 5 business days). I doubt I will take any more courses from ILC.
Let me just say that these courses suck. I am from a private school where I was marked relatively hard and got mid 90s marks but with ILC my marks have been horrible. The lessons are confusing and teach you nothing and then they expect you to somehow formulate essays on the material. There is no teacher to contact when you are lost and the people who mark your things are complete b*tches and very inconsiderate with their feedback. And to add to that they expect you to have the writing skills of a fourth-year university student. There is no one to actually guide you through the course and the general unit outline is very confusing. If the government wants Ontario citizens to be doing online course they better be Damn sure they fix this.
Hey Katelyn,
Thanks for sharing your frustrations with the program. I’m sorry to hear that it hasn’t worked well for you. I know that the ILC is one options that lots of homeschoolers choose to use with great success. I hope you can find another program that will meet the needs you have. 🙂
Lisa Marie.
The response time is also extremelyyyyyyyyy slow which makes the course take 10x longer.