Virtual Instruction

Leveraging VR for the instructional component of each course, introduces the instructional advantages of face to face teaching to distance learning model. Student-Student interactions are effortless and natural reintroducing social learning to distance learning platforms. Student-Teacher interactions are more frequent and resemble that of a traditional experience including both verbal and non-verbal interaction. Pedagogical strategies from the face-to-face classroom effortlessly transfer into this new learning environment. But the teaching resources used to support student learning have changed significantly. Students are able to interact with the content in VR like they have never been able to before, but all of your established resources can be seamlessly integrated into this new environment as well. The course architecture was designed to accommodate multiple school calendars and offer maximum flexibility for teacher autonomy.

The student experience is at the heart of a classical education model, and we have designed our curricula to offer the very best on every level, starting with the student interface to the Canvas Learning Management System. We have simplified the student experience, moving away from the traditional LMS to provide a more efficient means to locate and perform course requirements. This new approach has streamlined how students interact with the course content and receive detailed feedback. We have found that this innovation has had great success with all students but most importantly the younger students. All student interactions automatically populate into the traditional LMS platform providing the teacher with all the tools for grading and providing structured feedback to the students. 

The LMS contains all instructional materials needed to seamlessly deliverer each course. This includes all powerpoints, handouts, student worksheets, video links, VR content and Teacher walkthroughs for each lesson.

Optima Domi is committed to delivering a classical education to all students interested in this method of education. At its core Classical education puts young minds to work. It leads young people to understand themselves and the world around them. Students do not learn in the abstract. They must acquire concrete skills and gain knowledge in certain disciplines to participate fully and effectively in human civilization. To this end, Optima Domi embraces E. D. Hirsch’s idea of “cultural literacy.” For people to communicate effectively, according to Hirsch, they must not only use the same language. To express and understand complex ideas, they must possess a reservoir of common facts, ideas, and references known to all in a given social and political order. One of the great dangers we presently face as a nation is that, in the words of Hirsch, “many young people today strikingly lack the information that writers of American books and newspapers have traditionally taken for granted among their readers from all generations.” Cultural literacy is not merely ornamental trivia. Rather, cultural literacy is essential to a nation and its citizens. A culturally illiterate America cannot live up to the demands placed upon us by history and the present condition of the world. A culturally illiterate individual cannot comprehend and navigate the vast areas of human knowledge essential to his political, economic, and moral well-being. By endorsing the idea of cultural literacy (and civic literacy), Optima Domi has resolved to break out of the cycle of ignorance that modern culture and modern educational theories and practices perpetuate. The students of our virtual instruction provider will study the traditional liberal arts—language and literature, history and government, mathematics and the sciences, music and art—in a coherent and orderly program. Each curriculum will run from the rudiments of basic literacy and math skills to the higher orders of thought and expression. All students will be required to complete this classical curriculum. Admittedly, different children have different talents. Some students “catch on” more quickly than others. We shall always seek to challenge every student regardless of background all the time.