Ontario mandated e-learning to expand course options. Some worry it's being used to boost marks

Six years after e-learning became a mandatory requirement to get an Ontario high school diploma, students don't appear to be taking online school to diversify their course selection as the province had intended, according to a CBC News analysis of provincial enrolment data.

When Ontario announced the requirement in 2019, it touted the change as an “opportunity” for students to take electives not offered at their school and gain digital literacy skills. 

Now, an analysis of provincial e-learning data by CBC News has found that the most popular courses taken online were those required to graduate or electives typically used for university applications.

The numbers speak to concerns that some students, teachers and education experts have raised about the e-learning system, namely that it could be used to game the system for better marks, at a time when students need higher grades than ever before to get into university.

“The pitch around online education from its inception has been to respond to insufficient in-person offerings,” said Beyhan Farhadi, an assistant professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), who researches e-learning and was a high school teacher for 15 years.   

“If that were the case, we would have [a] greater number of college-level courses because those tend to be under enrolled [in] and we would have a greater degree of courses for students who are more on the margins.”

Out of the hundreds of courses offered online for the 2024-25 school year, the most popular one was civics and citizenship, a mandatory course that saw nearly 23,000 students enrolled. 

Other popular courses included English, math, and science classes like biology and chemistry, where enrolment was in the thousands.  

Inshal Syed, a Grade 12 student at Orchard Park Secondary School, chose to opt out of e-learning, an option that the province allows as long as a parent signs off on it. Students who are 18 years old or have withdrawn from parental consent can opt out on their own.  

Syed said many of his friends chose to take online courses for “the sole purpose of getting a high mark.” 

“A lot of kids know that the online version is a lot easier than in person,” Syed said. 

Monika Ferenczy, a senior education consultant and owner of education consulting firm Horizon Education Consulting, said "the premise that e-learning will boost your marks is pretty fair."

“It is a viable option to increase your marks because it doesn't have the same organic components to learning and teaching as a traditional classroom does.”

Ferenczy said e-learning lends itself better to more “theoretical, humanities types of courses and mathematics” and students who are self-guided learners, but the learning experience for courses like chemistry and biology will be much different than in person.