Veritas Press Omnibus 1 Secondary Self-Paced Course Review

Discloser: I received this curriculum for free in exchange for my honest review. Read my full disclosure here.

Questions About This Omnibus Self-Paced Course

I have received numerous questions about the Veritas Press Omnibus 1 Secondary Self-Paced course in the months since I shared my unboxing video. I’ll try to answer those questions first before jumping in to my full review.

What is this course all about?

Let me try to break down what Veritas Press Ombibus 1 Secondary Self-Paced course is all about. Veritas Press is the curriculum provider. They publish classical curriculum from a Christian worldview. Their Omnibus courses are for the secondary grades (middle school and high school). Omnibus is a great books curriculum that covers history, theology and literature from a Christian worldview. Omnibus 1 is the first, year long course, in their Omnibus series.

Now here is where it gets a little confusing. Each Omnibus course is divided into two parts, which are Primary and Secondary. The Primary course is more challenging and provides the historical context. The Secondary part of the course includes lighter reading that focuses more on literature and theology.

Both the Primary and Secondary components of the course are a full year.

• Omnibus Primary contains 175 lessons, 5 times a week for 35 weeks.
• Omnibus Secondary contains 105 lessons, 3 times a week for 35 weeks.

Omnibus Primary and Secondary are meant to be taken simultaneously. Together they provide a full credit in each of these subjects:

• 1 credit in history
• 1 credit in theology
• 1 credit in literature

Now we get to the last part in this very long course title: Veritas Press Omnibus 1 Secondary Self-Paced course.

Veritas Press has three ways that a student can take their Omnibus course. The first option is to take the course via a live online class offered through Veritas Press. Another option is for the student to take the course online through the self-paced course. Finally, the course can be taken with the parent teaching and discussing the materials with the student.

I decided to have my daughter take the self-paced, online course. She only did the Secondary component of the Omnibus 1 course because she already had a history curriculum that she was using. We only needed the literature and theology component that was in the Secondary self-paced course.

My daughter is in 8th grade so we are not issuing high school credits for this course. However, I feel a student taking just the Omnibus 1 Secondary course could be given 1 full credit in Literature (if a few writing assignments were added in) and a half credit in theology. This is just my personal opinion and not the recommendation of Veritas Press.

How does the self-paced course work?

The self-paced option is very easy to use. A student logs into their Veritas Press account and clicks on the lesson they are on. The lesson interchanges between video and activities.

The video component includes the teaching portions of the lesson, interviews with experts on the topics being discussed and street interviews.

The activities are done online. Questions are generated based on the student’s response to previous answers. This makes it as conversation-like as possible considering it is online with no real-life interaction.

Tests and quizzes are taken online. Activities, quizzes and tests are graded and recorded automatically so that the parent has nothing to grade the entire year.

Homework is assigned at the end of each lesson. Work is expected to be completed before starting the next lesson and all the assigned work is actually reading assignments.

Parents have access to the student’s grades and progress. A report card can be printed off after the course has been completed.

While a parent can see the student’s grade, they are not able to see which questions a student missed on a given assignment or quiz/test. However, the student is able to see what they missed and has the option to print it out if desired. If you want to know what questions your student has missed, make sure to have them push “print” when this option pops up in their lesson.

Each lesson took my daughter around an hour to complete each day. Some lessons took longer if the reading assignment was longer than usual.

There are no writing assignments with the self-pace course although they can be added in if desired.

I encourage you to check out the sample lessons on the Veritas Press website. The sample lessons will give you a much better idea of how the self-paced courses work. Veritas Press also offers a FREE 2 week trial of any self-paced course.

What’s needed for the course?

Veritas Press was kind enough to give me the following components for free: Omnibus 1 Textbook with Teaching CD, access to the online self-paced course and all the literature books that go along with this course. (Watch this unboxing video to see everything I received.)

While taking the course, my daughter and I discovered that the Omnibus 1 Textbook with Teaching CD is not needed for the self-paced course. All the materials that are required to read from the textbook are provided online in the course itself.

That means that all that is needed for the self-paced course is access to the course and the books that are assigned for homework. These books include:

• Chosen by God
• Till We Have Faces
• The Magician’s Nephew
• The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
• The Horse and His Boy
• Prince Caspian
• The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
• The Silver Chair
• The Last Battle
• The Best Things in Life
• Unaborted Socrates
• The Eagle of the Ninth
• The Screwtape Letters
• The Holiness of God

Students will also be reading several books of the Bible which include:

• Isaiah
• Jeremiah
• the minor prophets (Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi)
• Galatians
• Romans
• James

Things We Loved about the Omnibus Self-Paced Course

There were so many things that my 8th grader and I loved about this course. My daughter was able to work at her own pace and do her lessons anywhere she wanted as long as she had internet access.

I loved that the course was self-grading and that nothing was required of me as a parent. My daughter was able to have great success with this course with no involvement on my part. However, I did choose to read many of the books and watch many of the lessons because I found them so interesting. This also allowed me to have some wonderful discussions with my daughter regarding the things she was learning. This was not necessary though and a student could do this course completely independent of a parent.

The video lecture sections do an excellent job of explaining difficult concepts and helping students remember important details. A student who has a hard time grasping abstract concepts will benefit from the thorough teaching in this course. A review time at the end of each lesson is extremely beneficial in helping the student remember key points from the lesson.

One example of the superb teaching from this course is in regards to the minor prophets. The professor took time to explain who the prophets were and when they prophesied in relation to the kings of Israel. A helpful timeline was shown as a visual reference for the student which my daughter said was extremely helpful. My 8th grader was very grateful for the teaching on the minor prophets. She has read these books of the Bible before but said that now she has a much better understanding of this section of Scripture.

Not only are the video lectures filled with excellent instruction but they are engaging as well. The background of the video lectures change with each book and fit with the theme of the book being discussed. My daughter really enjoyed this detail in the course and looked forward to discovering what new background and scenery would appear when she started a new book. I thought this feature made the course more engaging, especially for students who struggle to enjoy literature.

The course provides rigorous literary analysis of both fiction and non-fiction books which is something I have always struggled to teach my kids on my own. While the literature analysis is rigorous, the professor makes it accessible and tangible for any student.

When it came to works of fiction, excellent literary analysis was given. Students were taught to appreciate good literature and to recognize that all stories effect us in some way. The course taught how to analyze the meaning of a story and how to understand the author’s point of view.

Many of the non-fiction works dealt with challenging topics yet the course made it easier to understand these difficult theological concepts and current cultural issues. The course also aided the student in applying these tough theological issues to everyday life.

Before starting a new book, students are asked to read an essay from the Omnibus 1 Textbook. These essays give background information and a summary of the book that the student is about to start. My daughter said that these essays helped her understand and appreciate the literature she was reading. Even novels that she had already read in the past (like the Chronicles of Narnia series) were given new life and more meaning by reading these introduction essays.

The activity portion of the self-paced course was also very enjoyable for my daughter. There was a wide variety of activities to do throughout each lesson which helped hold her interest. The activities helped reinforce what she was learning and made it easier to memorize important concepts that were being taught.

Veritas Press went above and beyond the typical online course by including street interviews and interviews with experts. These were one of my daughter’s favorite things in the course.

The street interviews included dialogue with people on the street about topics in the course. My daughter was able to see what other people’s opinions were on various topics and then compare those views to Scripture. Interviews with experts allowed my daughter to hear from people more knowledgable on a particular topic. These segments were very informative and kept my daughter’s attention more than just continual lectures.

The Omnibus self-paced course gave her the excellent academic instruction she needed in a fun and engaging way. It gave me peace of mind knowing that my daughter was receiving a rigorous, yet doable, education from a Biblical worldview. I highly recommend Veritas Press Omnibus 1 Secondary self-paced course!

Important to Know Before Purchasing

While I highly recommend the Omnibus 1 Secondary self-paced course, I think it is important for parents to be aware of several things regarding the course. Hopefully these things will help you determine if this course is right for your child.

Course Content to Be Aware Of

There were a few topics that I think parents should be aware of before purchasing the Omnibus 1 Secondary self-paced course.

• I believe it is important to know what a particular curriculum provider believes about God and the Bible. To read Veritas Press’ statement of faith, go to their website, scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page and click on the “Terms and Conditions” link. From there, you can download the most recent Parent/Student handbook which contains their Statement of Faith.
• Omnibus 1 Secondary covers the topic of election. The stance that the curriculum takes is in line with RC Sproul and his book Chosen by God, which is required reading for the course. This topic comes up several times in the course so it is worth noting. If you disagree with this stance on election and choose to use the course, you can use it as a teaching opportunity with your student.
• Students will be reading many of the prophets in the Old Testament. One of the lessons discusses prophesy and poses the question of whether or not the gift of prophesy exists today. A pastor is interviewed during this lesson who takes the stance that the gift of prophesy does exist today. This topic seemed to be limited to this one lesson and time was taken to discuss the issue of false prophets today. This could easily be used as a discussion opportunity should you disagree with this position on prophesy today.
• The topic of eschatology (or end times) was also addressed in this course. A thorough explanation of the 3 major views on eschatology was given. A pastor was interviewed and asked to explain each view. I felt he gave a very balanced explanation of each view. He briefly mentioned his opinion but encouraged students to talk with their parents, their pastor and to search the Scriptures for themselves to determine which view they held.
• One of the assigned books for reading is The Best Things in Life. This book contains some mature topics. I encourage parents to read through the Table of Contents (found online) to determine if this book would be appropriate for their child.

Other Things to Consider

• Parents can view the lessons AFTER the student has watched them. There is no way to watch the lessons ahead of the student. Parents must view lessons from student’s account.
• A student is NOT able to skip lessons. A lesson stays locked until the lesson before it has been completed.
• Veritas Press offers a FREE 2 week trial of any self-paced course!
• Veritas Press offers a 90 day money back guarantee on their courses!
• Make sure to verify that your device is compatible with the self-paced course. Learn more in the FAQ page on the Veritas Press website.
• Read the FAQ page to make sure your internet speed is compatible with the course.
• Purchasing the self-paced course gives you 12-month access with the option for a monthly extension if needed (at an additional cost).

Check out even more curriculum reviews here.