Online school

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Florida Virtual School Screenshot

A virtual school is simply a school where students of all ages can do their coursework online. Most states in the United States have their own virtual school, and many of them have students numbering in the thousands. By providing a students social security number the person is then entered into a database where they can chose which classes they want to take.

Many schools have over 100 classes and faculty numbering in the hundreds. A typical class can have around 100 students, but can reach anywhere up to 200. Students keep in contact with teachers through email, chat rooms, and a program called the whiteboard, along with phone calls. To help with communication many virtual schools have implemented their own system programs to help build courses and maintain student profiles. One such program is called UCompass Educator, and has been used in the development of the Florida Virtual School and many others. There are also many books and training manuals to aid in the development of such schools and courses.

History

The Virtual High School was one of the first online schools on the Internet - established in 1996 and offered two completely online courses that year - biology and Canadian Literature. It became a private online school in the fall of 1996 and established its domain on January 2, 1997 (http://www.VirtualHighSchool.com). The school is one of the few pioneer online schools to survive the early years and is still in operation with over 1000 students from many different countries but maily has students from Ontario, Canada.

Since that time, many popular schools have sprung up throughout the US. One of those, the Florida Virtual School, has over 30,000 students, that number growing every day. In some instances courses have been priced at over $800.

Virtual Schools now exist all around the world, but are used primarily in the United States. The schools have now been integrated into public schools, where students sit in computer labs and do their work online. In other situations, students can be completely home schooled, or they can take any combination of public/private/home schooling and online classes.

Pricing and location

Virtual schools may be free if the state you live in pays for the courses, otherwise, there will be a course fee to be paid for by the student, parents or student's home school. Other materials would be purchased by the student, such as books.

Materials can also add up. Most courses will provide electronic materials free of cost, but others require some shopping on the students part. Textbooks are not required but can be used as an aid for coursework.

Materials

As mentioned earlier, many materials are provided free of cost. Some schools provide high quality programs, usually for web design classes. Some popular materials include Adobe products, Jasc products, and products from Macromedia. Other schools may use Corel products as a cheaper alternative. These products are usually free. You usually receive the full version of the selected program, with a limited license, usually 1 year or so. These programs are key in the success of virtual schools, and help them to improve each year. Many schools will also provide a brand new computer for all students in need of one. Generally, these computers run using the Microsoft operating system, Windows XP, but depending on your needs and coursework the school may also use Linux based computers or Apple Computers

Grading

Generally, grading is controlled by the teachers. There are 4 main types of assignments. Assessments are the most common, and include students uploading files, usually created using Microsoft Word, or other programs from Microsoft Office. Worksheets are also common, and can consist of multiple choice, matching, short answer, and other questions. Most questions from worksheets are auto graded by the computer, but if a response is needed for any question, the teacher must manually grade that portion of the assignment. Discussions are common too. They usually have a very small grade value, and usually don't show up in the assignments section of the course, where you submit work and check scores. The final type of assignment is exams. These assignments usually count for a large part of the student's grade, and are usually taken at the end of modules, or at the mid-term point or final portion of a class.

The scoring system is generally the same as any public school system in the United States. In most schools a letter grade of A is accomplished when a student's number grade is between 90 and 100 percent. A score of 80 to 89 percent will earn a B, and so on. An F is the lowest score you can earn, and encompasses scores of 50 percent or below in most cases.

External links

• Virtual High School
• eCollege Course Management System
• Florida Virtual School
• Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow
• UCompass Educator System
• K12 Education Curriculum co-sponsors virtual academies for grades K-10 in many states.
• Michigan Virtual High School
• AMDG