Online School

A Online School or cyber school  describes an institution that teaches course entirely or primarily through online methods. It has been suggested that a virtual school is an online learning platform offered by an educational organization whereby individuals can earn credits in the particular area of interest which can be counted toward graduation or advancement to the next grade.



Instructional Models of Online School:.
There are many different Online school instructional and enrollment models. Instructional models range from fully independent self paced courses to semester based virtual teacher facilitated courses. Class sizes range widely with anywhere from 25 student to as many as 200 students in each class section.
Students keep in contact with teachers and collaborate with other students through web communication tools provided in the course delivery platforms. Student can also communicate by phone, email, and other technology communication practices with instructors. Studies have shown that the use of the telephone in communication between educator and student seems to afford some aspect of more meaningful communication, as it provides more information at a personal level. However, communication between parties by email has been understood to be the most critical component for online learning as it allows for the most convenient and speedy response on behalf of the parties involved. In addition to help with communication many virtual school have implemented  their own system programs to help build courses and maintain student profiles. There are also a variety of books and training manuals to aid in the development of such schools and courses.

History Of Online School (Virtual School):.
The mid 1990s saw the advent of completely virtual schools. Many of today's virtual schools are descendants of correspondence schools. It has been suggested that virtual schooling is largely a phenomenon that occurs within North America. However, other countries have been seen to operate some form of online or web based learning content. While it has been suggested that the individual who can benefit from virtual classes are individuals who tend to lack such opportunities, research suggests that virtual schooling tends to reflect a higher percentage of student failure and dropout.
Sometimes referred to as distance learning correspondence schools offered students an alternative to the traditional brick and mortar meeting within a schoolhouse. These schools utilized the postal service for student teacher interaction or used two way radio transmissions sometimes with pre-recorded television broadcasts. Students were expected to study their learning material independently and, in some cases, meet with a proctor to be tested. Modern Virtual School provide similar alternatives to students with a more ubiquitous and often interactive approach.
Online school now exist all around the world. Over the past decade, K-12 online instruction has dramatically increased in both Canada and the United States. Some of 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.