"Online school" can mean a lot of things. For some families, it means a student watching pre-recorded videos alone at a desk. Veritas Scholars Academy works differently. Classes meet twice a week with a live teacher, students are called on by name, participation counts toward the grade, and real relationships get built over time.

This video walks through exactly what the live classroom experience looks like at VSA, including scheduling, homework expectations, how teachers handle grading, and why community forms even in a virtual setting.

What to Expect in a VSA Live Class

You can take live classes at VSA as a full-time or part-time student.

If you're homeschooling your high schooler and you'd rather have an expert teach chemistry, you can come to us for just that one class. A full-time student takes five or six classes and is typically pursuing a diploma, a graduation, and a transcript. Either way, the live classroom works the same.

We offer live classes from third through twelfth grade, during the school year and in the summer. We have about 160 expert teachers in our virtual classrooms.

The Virtual Classroom

The teacher is on webcam, and students are engaged directly — this isn't passive video watching.

A teacher might call on a student by name: "Liz, can you tell me the answer to question five?" or "Sally, what did you think about Shelley's view of education in Frankenstein?" Sally would hop on webcam and mic and answer. In a math class, the teacher might put a problem on the board and ask who can solve it, with students responding in real time through the chat or on mic.

The classroom is genuinely interactive. Responses are quick.

Schedule: The University Model

Classes meet twice a week for an hour and a half each session — either Monday/Wednesday or Tuesday/Thursday. There are no live classes on Friday. Friday is reserved for projects, tests, labs, and papers.

A typical class might run from 8:00 to 9:30 a.m. Full-time students usually take five to six classes and will often schedule three in a row, or two with a lunch break in between.

When all four of my kids were full-time diploma students — spread across seventh through twelfth grade — there were years we had 25 live courses running between them. It's manageable, even with a large family.

Outside of class, students should expect to spend roughly three to six hours per week per class on homework, projects, quizzes, and papers. Some weeks less, some weeks more.

Participation

Participation is a meaningful part of the grade in every live class. Students will be called on by name. We also have engagement meters embedded in our classroom software that track how often a student answers a question or contributes to the chat.

If a student goes quiet, their teacher will notice and reach out: "I've called on you a couple of times recently and haven't heard from you — just wanted to check in." That kind of accountability is part of what makes live classes different from watching recorded video alone.

Course Assignment Sheets

One of the things that sets VSA apart is what we call Course Assignment Sheets — CAS. These are broken down by quarter and show every single assignment a student will have for the term. Teachers commit to these and stick to them.

For planners, this is a gift. I've used the CAS to identify a lighter week so we could take a few days for a college visit without my kids falling behind. When your student enters a course, they have access to the entire year's assignment sheets from day one.

Passionate Teachers Who Know Their Subject

One of my favorite things about live classes is the chance for your student to be mentored by adults other than you.

There comes a time in every homeschooling parent's life when we recognize that other adults can take our children further than we can. It starts small — I'm crafty, but I don't like messes, so I hired an art teacher for my kids when they were little — and it becomes more significant in high school, when you might not love math or find that history isn't your strength. The last thing you want to do is project that onto your student.

Our teachers love their disciplines. They love history, math, chemistry — and they will light a fire under your student that you probably can't.

Grading and Feedback

Teachers grade your student's work and offer substantive feedback.

When my oldest, Michael, was in second grade, I'd mark things wrong in his workbook and he'd come to me asking if he could white out my red X's after he corrected his answers. He was a perfectionist who didn't readily accept correction from me. In subjective areas like writing, this matters even more. When I told my daughter a sentence was awkward, she pushed back. When her teacher told her the same thing, she revised it without argument.

One of my daughter's science teachers messaged me once a quarter just to say how well she was doing and that she had a real mind for science. My daughter had never heard that before. She started considering a science major because of that teacher's encouragement.

Community

The community that forms through live classes is real.

One of my daughter's VSA friends is visiting us in Kansas City soon. My kids have connected with Veritas families all over the country — when we're traveling and find out a Veritas family is nearby, we make a point to meet up.

The End of Year Gathering—EOYG—is when the broader community comes together. It's a five-day conference in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where VSA is headquartered. There's graduation, a dance, field trips, luncheons, a mom's tea. My family has attended twelve years in a row, minus one year for COVID. Students meet their teachers and classmates in person, often for the first time.

In Omnibus classes, teachers will sometimes ask students to hold up their current book on webcam when they start a new one, and snap a class photo. Small moments, but they add up.

Once most students experience a live class, something shifts. They come back wanting more. As one of my kids put it: "Mom, I love you, but I'd rather take this live with someone else."