How ARK ACADEMY supports homeschooling with ONLYOFFICE DocSpace

ARK ACADEMY NPC was created to help parents navigate homeschooling with more confidence. When the pandemic pushed education into homes, many families needed structure, guidance, and reliable tools. In this story, we look at how ARK ACADEMY uses ONLYOFFICE DocSpace to support parents, students, and teachers while keeping costs under control.

About ARK ACADEMY

ARK ACADEMY didn’t start as a typical education project. It came from a real need that became obvious in 2020. When lockdowns hit, many parents suddenly had to take charge of their children’s education. Homeschooling was already legal in South Africa, but for most families, it felt overwhelming. There were too many questions and not enough clear guidance.

Prof. Atia Adam, a Cambridge Teacher Trainer with international experience, had seen how different systems work — and how hard it can be to teach without structure. So she decided to build something practical.

That’s how ARK ACADEMY was created.

It started with an 8-day online training workshop for parents, tutors, and teachers. Then came tailored lesson plans aligned with international curricula. As lockdowns ended, many families chose to continue homeschooling, which led ARK ACADEMY to expand into online schooling. Today, it supports families with training, ready-made materials, and structured online education, making homeschooling easier to manage.

The challenge: balancing quality and cost

One of the main challenges for ARK ACADEMY is cost. At the same time, the team needed a solution that could handle document creation, editing, and collaboration without adding complexity.

This led them to seek alternatives to Microsoft 365 and resulted in the evaluating ONLYOFFICE and LibreOffice. After careful evaluation of both platforms, ONLYOFFICE was the best suited to their needs and became the number one recommendation for parents and students.

It offered a familiar interface, so switching didn’t take much time. Parents and students could start working with documents almost immediately, without a long onboarding process.

Why ONLYOFFICE DocSpace

ARK ACADEMY chose ONLYOFFICE DocSpace as a central place to manage their educational content and collaboration.

The platform allows them to organize lesson materials, share documents with parents and students, and work together without relying on email attachments or multiple tools.

Compatibility also played a role. The team works with many existing documents in Microsoft Office formats, and ONLYOFFICE handled them without issues. This made the transition smoother and avoided extra work.

How they use DocSpace day to day

Lesson plans are created and shared in a structured way, so parents always have access to the latest version. Instead of building everything from scratch, families can rely on ready-to-use materials aligned with learning objectives.

Teachers and tutors can edit documents, update content, and collaborate when needed. This is especially useful for refining lesson plans or preparing new materials.

The team also uses ONLYOFFICE to:

• create and manage lesson plans
• edit PDFs submitted by students
• prepare presentations for lessons and workshops
• collaborate on documents without version confusion

There were some minor issues when editing PDFs at first, especially with student submissions. But these were resolved quickly with help from the ONLYOFFICE support team.

The result: simpler workflows, better access

With ONLYOFFICE DocSpace, ARK ACADEMY has a more structured and accessible way to manage content.

Parents don’t need to search through emails or worry about outdated files. Students can submit their work more easily. And the team spends less time dealing with technical issues.

The transition is still ongoing, but ONLYOFFICE is already becoming their main working environment.

Reyaaz Karjieker, Executive Director of ARK ACADEMY:

We’ve implemented a Hybrid Work-from-Home model to help our staff reduce their travel costs. The staff currently only comes into the office once a week, on a Friday, and the collaboration feature has made it so much easier for teachers to assist each other in planning their lessons and class presentations. Before, they had to wait till they got into the office to assist each other. Now, when they need help, they just schedule the time and jump online.

Looking ahead

ARK ACADEMY plans to fully integrate ONLYOFFICE into its workflow once its Microsoft 365 subscription ends. They are also considering exploring AI features in the future, but for now, the focus is on keeping things simple and effective.

ONLYOFFICE is the smarter choice for discerning individuals and frontline institutions.