OntaOnta is an innovative, challenging and student-centered online learning platform. It is a powerful pedagogical tool that allows educators at the elementary level to teach a comprehensive Math curriculum to 21st century learners, by utilizing a variety of materials that foster math literacy and student engagement. Meanwhile, it offers students a chance to have a personalized curriculum where they can target weak areas in math for desired improvements and parents a transparent way to monitor their child’s academic progression and success.
OntaOnta provides a solution to the ongoing issue that many elementary educators face - the lack of high-quality resources to teach Math in a comprehensive and highly organised fashion. With this tool, mathematical concepts at each grade level are presented in a logical or sequential pattern that co-aligns with Ontario curriculum standards. They also contain material that is presented with such simplicity that allows students to revisit foundational material, thus allowing them to fill in gaps of knowledge they may have previously possessed. In doing so, OntaOnta is constantly being updated with resources for greater student understanding, all while challenging students for the next academic level.
OntaOnta has many features, one of which is that it provides a number of highly organized, easy-to-follow lessons for both teachers and students. If students miss class or need more time to revisit concepts they can login and view extra aids and videos to supplement their learning, which is especially useful for parents who wish to help their child at home.
Another feature is that homework, assignments and activities with full solutions are available that allow students to: consolidate their learning, check their work and target mistakes. With that said, there are a broad range of questions of varying difficulty to accommodate the individual learning needs of each student, ranging from simple review to challenging EQAO-style questions. By the end of teaching my Grade 8 class, almost all of my students were able to work their way up to answering the challenging questions.
My most favourite feature was the ability to provide students with ongoing online quizzes/tests after each lesson. This acted as a great assessment - as/of/for - tool to monitor student progress and work habits. Specifically, the quizzes allowed for multiple attempts and descriptive feedback for incorrect answers, allowing students the ability to learn from their mistakes and keep trying until they were successful with a 100%. In the end, I had students attempting the quiz 4, 5 even 10 times until they felt satisfied with their score. This translated over to their increased ability to problem solve in class and their greater initiative to ask for help when they were stumped on a problem.
Lastly, this pedagogical tool is controlled by the teacher, who can decide what materials the students are able to access and if needed, can post additional materials. The best part is that as teachers we are able to get an analysis of student scores, attempts and results and print it out to give to parents so they can also monitor their child’s work habits.
After using OntaOnta for the full year in my Grade 8 class, I noticed vast improvements in my students’ abilities and enjoyment in Math. I think all educators will love using this platform as it reduces the amount of preparatory work and time spent on marking. Personally, I think OntaOnta is our solution to ensure that students are meeting the provincial standard in Math.
OntaOnta was something new that most of us had never heard of. It was different doing math quizzes and tests online but it was better than doing them in class with a time limit. The good thing about our quizzes on OntaOnta was that we could do it as many times as we wanted. I feel like everyone felt that 9/10 was not good enough when we had the opportunity to do it as many times as we wanted. Even when I got 9/10 five times in a row, I would always keep aiming for that 10/10 because there was no reason, I couldn’t get it. What I liked about OntaOnta was that we could do our tests at home, sitting on the couch with all of our resources and there was no time limit. Also, all of the material from the course was online so you would never have to worry about not being prepared or losing a page. For each lesson, there was a quiz that went along with it. We would learn the lesson then go home and do the quiz. Doing the quizzes helped us remember the material better. I can safely say that the challenge questions helped prepare us for the next level of math. OntaOnta was an awesome way to learn and develop our math skills during grade 8.
I hate in-class tests because I never have enough time and I know I can’t get 100% so I don’t bother trying. But at least with the OntaOnta quizzes I can take my time and I feel more motivated to keep trying because I know if I do I can possibly get 100%.
I appreciate Ms. P’s math and OntaOnta. Although we had so much work and it was a nightmare, I’m so happy because I was so well-prepared for Grade 9 since I did so well on my Math Diagnostic test in high school.
I needed those videos! Sometimes it’s hard for me to pay attention in class, but at least I can go home and watch it and then do my homework.
The quizzes held me accountable in making sure I did my homework. Especially because Ms. P could send the results to my mom.
We learnt a lot of material that I’m learning right now so Grade 9 feels so easy to me.
I like how organized the workbooks were and that I can choose to move through at my own pace instead of waiting for the next lesson.
As an ESL student, this was the first time that math questions were presented in an easy to understand way.