Virtual classroom - American Education

On-line course offerings designed for elementary and secondary school students at schools unable to provide such courses independently. Often part of a broader on-line curriculum, or “virtual high school,” the virtual classroom usually provides on-line courses to students within the same state or in geographic regions whose school districts share the same academic requirements for gradua- tion and whose students ultimately will be subject to the same academic assessment tests. Virtual classrooms have allowed thousands of budget-strapped elementary and secondary schools to expand their course offerings without hiring additional faculty—and to offer Advanced Placement courses for gifted students who have finished their high school curriculum in specific subject areas and are ready to begin freshman college-level work. They have also been valuable to schools in sparsely settled areas, where student enrollment in specific courses such as a foreign language or a physical science often does not warrant hiring a specialist teacher. A low-cost replacement for televised, interactive TELELECTURES, virtual classrooms are interactive, allowing students to question their instructors and “chat” via e-mail with each other, with students in other classrooms and with scholars in other institutions in Webbased “chat rooms.”

(See also computers; distance learning; Edison Project; Internet.)