GLS1O, Learning Strategies: Skills for Success, Grade 9, Open – online course

GLS1O, Learning Strategies: Skills for Success in Secondary School, is an Open Grade 9 course that helps students become more independent, confident learners. Students develop literacy and numeracy skills, personal-management and organization habits, and teamwork skills they apply across school, work, and the community.

GLS1O suits any Grade 9 student who wants stronger study, organization, time-management, and self-advocacy skills — including students easing into high school, balancing busy schedules, or building confidence. It is an Open course with no prerequisite, so it is open to everyone.

In GLS1O you build practical study and life skills: time management, organization, note-taking, test and assignment strategies, goal-setting, and self-advocacy, along with literacy and numeracy strategies. You learn how you learn best and how to apply those strategies across all your courses.

Yes. GLS1O is designed to make students more effective, independent learners, and the organization, time-management, and study strategies it teaches transfer directly to every other course. Many students take it early in high school to build habits that improve their results across the board.

The earlier, the better. Many students take GLS1O the summer before Grade 9 or during first semester, so the study, organization, and time-management strategies pay off across all four years of high school. It’s also a smart pick whenever workload jumps — before a heavy semester or alongside more demanding courses.

No. GLS1O is an Open Grade 9 course with no prerequisite, so any student can enrol. It is designed to be accessible and to give students practical strategies they can use immediately in their other high school courses.

Yes. Students use GLS1O at OES to lighten a heavy semester, recover a missed credit, or get ahead over a break or the summer. It’s self-paced and open year-round — finish in as little as 4 weeks or spread the work over up to 12 months around your other commitments.

Yes. Ontario students who started Grade 9 in the 2020–21 school year or later must earn at least two online learning credits to graduate, and GLS1O at OES — a Ministry-inspected online school (BSID #667186) — counts toward that requirement. An opt-out process exists through school boards, and specific provisions apply to students affected by the 2021 school closures.

GLS1O meets the Ministry of Education’s attendance and participation expectations through activities blended directly into the course. OES requires students to log in at least once per week for attendance, and participation activities appear throughout the course and are reflected in the grade book — preserving self-paced flexibility while satisfying the requirements for online courses.

Ontario’s Growing Success policy pre-determines the evaluation structure for every credit. Beginning in the 2026–27 school year, GLS1O is graded on classroom work completed throughout the course (65%) plus a Ministry-mandated final evaluation worth 20% for Grades 9–10, with attendance and participation also reflected in the final grade. A credit is granted at 50% or higher — and as an inspected private school, OES may administer final evaluations online, while school-board online courses generally require in-person exam sittings.