REPORT ON VIRTUAL SCHOOL

By – Aditya Hegde
Class – X A
 Table of Contents
1.0 Overview....................................................................................................... 3
2.0 Models of Virtual School.............................................................................. 4
2.1 Independent Courses ...............................................................................4
2.2 Online Classes........................................................................................... 4
2.3 Hybrid Model............................................................................................ 4
3.0 History.......................................................................................................... 5
4.0 Advantages of Virtual School.......................................................................6
5.0 Disadvantages of Virtual School...................................................................7
6.0 Tools for Virtual Classroom.........................................................................8
6.1 Zoom......................................................................................................... 8
6.1.1 How to Sign Up................................................................................... 8
6.1.2 How to join Zoom Class.....................................................................8
6.2 Cisco WebEx............................................................................................. 9
6.3 Microsoft Teams....................................................................................... 9
7.0 Conclusions ................................................................................................ 10
1.0 Overview
An online school (virtual school or e-school or cyber-school) teaches students
entirely or primarily online or through the Internet. It has been defined as
"education that uses one or more technologies to deliver instruction to
students who are separated from the instructor and to support regular and
substantive interaction between the students. Online education exists all
around the world and is used for all levels of education (K-12, college, or
graduate school). This type of learning enables the individuals to earn
transferable credits, take recognized examinations, or advance to the next
level of education over the Internet

Virtual education is most commonly used at the high school or college level.
Students who are of the age 30 or older, tend to study on online programs at
higher rates. This group represents 41% of the online education population,
while 35.5% of students ages 24–29 and 24.5% of students ages 15–23
participate in virtual education.

Virtual education is becoming increasing used worldwide. There are currently

more than 4,700 colleges and universities that provide online courses to their
students. In 2015, more than 6 million students were taking at least one
course online, this number grew by 3.9% from the previous year. 29.7% of all
higher education students are taking at least one distance course. The total
number of students studying on a campus exclusively dropped by 931,317
people between the years 2012 and 2015. Experts say that because the
number of students studying at the college level is growing, there will also be
an increase in the number of students enrolled in distance learning.
2.0 Models of Virtual School
Instructional models vary, ranging from distance learning types which
provide study materials for independent self-paced study, to live, interactive
classes where students communicate with a teacher in a class group lesson.
Class sizes range widely from a small group of 6 pupils or students to
hundreds in a virtual school.

2.1 Independent Courses

The courses that are independent and self paced are called asynchronous
courses. Typically for this type of learning, the students are given the
assignments and information, and are expected to complete the assignments
by the due date. This is done on their own time. There is no scheduled time
when the class meets. Usually the only interactions that takes place are
through discussion boards, blogs, and wikis.

2.2 Online Classes

Online courses happen in real time. The instructor and students all interact
online at the same time. This is done either through text, video, or audio chat.
Therefore these lessons are socially constructed. In addition to the scheduled
class time, there is usually additional assignments to complete.

2.3 Hybrid Model

Hybrid, sometimes also called blended, courses are when students learn and
interact both in person and online. Theses classes meet in person during the
semester in addition to computer based communication.
3.0 History
The mid-1990s saw the advent of completely virtual schools. Many of today's
virtual schools are descendants of correspondence schools. The earlier online
schools began in Australia, New Zealand, North America and the UK,
generally in areas where low density population made schooling by
conventional means difficult and expensive to provide. In 2008 an
assessment found high dropout rates. As in other computerized
environments, once the glamour of the new methods wore off it became clear
that human skills were paramount to success, in this case teaching and
welfare expertise. Where this is recognized retention is good, i.e. in the
synchronous, socially structured models; in the huge MOOC style courses the
same isolation problems as correspondence learning are found.

Sometimes referred to as "distance learning", correspondence schools offered

students an alternative to the traditional brick and mortar meetings 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.

Virtual schools now exist all around the world. Over the past decade, K-12
online instruction has dramatically increased in both Canada and the United
States.[8] Some of these virtual schools have been integrated into public
schools (particularly in the United States), where students sit in computer
labs and do their work online. Students can also be completely home-
schooled, or they can take any combination of public/private/home-schooling
and online classes.

The International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL) developed

a set of standards released in September 2007 and updated on October 12,
2011. These standards will help monitor online programs and ensure that
every provider of education is accredited.
4.0 Advantages of Virtual School
Advocates of online schools and online learning point to a number of
advantages:
1. There is a lack of costly and tiring travel involved, with a much greater
dependability of lessons. Weather disrupting transport is almost
irrelevant (though an area subject to frequent power cuts will suffer
consequent disruptions). Similarly common health disruptions through
minor illness or injury will not halt learning, because the physical
demands are so much less. Transcripts of lessons can plug short
absences.
2. Many students who have personal or health conditions that make
physical school difficult or impossible can instead learn using virtual
educational programs.
3. Ideal for individuals and families who need flexible arrangements.
However, synchronous learning does impose limits due to time zones,
which tends to divide online schools in Europe and Asia from North
America.
4. The integration of Internet resources provides a huge library of content,
and students quickly become adept at online research.
5. There is a greater flexibility for self-learners or gifted students to
explore learning beyond the standard curriculum. Independent minded
students, those with specialist skills and ambitions, can develop at their
own preferred pacing using net resources.
6. Online schools can be equalizers, as age, appearance, and background
are far less obvious. Groups can be categorized by personal ability.
7. Students and pupils benefit from exposure to others in different
cultures of the world, which enriches understanding of history,
geography, religions and politics, and develops social skills.
8. Part-time students with jobs or family commitments may benefit from
the flexibility of online schedules, as claimed by supporters of virtual
education.
9. For asynchronous education, a student may study, learn, or do their
homework when they have free time. Therefore, this gives the students
flexibility with their education.
5.0 Disadvantages of Virtual School
Some disadvantages of virtual school includes:
1. Critics argue that students do not interact with their instructors or peers
face-to-face, which lends itself to a "lack of socialization" unless
supplemented using online groups such as Elluminate or Wimba, or by
attending other social activities outside of school.
2. A challenge pointed out by critics is that there is an added challenge of
staying focused while in the home environment. It has been reported
that many students have a difficult time staying on task when
participating in learning online.
3. Some argue that the cost of starting up an online school is expensive.
4. As pointed out by opposers of online school, not everyone has access to
digital technologies which would prohibited them to attend virtual
schools, unless their local libraries or community programs may offer
access to computers and research materials.
5. An argument identified by critics is that virtual schools are relatively
new and because of that there are no seldom methods of evaluating
their effectiveness in educating their students.
6. As claimed in a study done by Eric Bettinger and Susanna Loeb, on
average, online students "do substantially worse than students in the
same face-to-face course".
7. Critics have pointed out that it is common for technology to be
unpredictable, glitch, or not function correctly.
8. Some people who oppose virtual education have argued that obtaining a
job with an online degree may be harder because potential employers
may be skeptical of the credibility of these virtual programs.
9. The assignments due for online schooling may not be assessing the
ability of the students because many answers can be found on the
Internet, as claimed by critics of online schooling.
6.0 Tools for Virtual Classroom
A virtual classroom is an online learning environment in which students and
teachers interact via the technical tools provided by the software. Virtual
classroom software is used by educational institutions to host classes
remotely while maintaining the functionality available in a traditional
classroom environment.

6.1 Zoom
Zoom provides videotelephony and online chat services through a cloud-
based peer-to-peer software platform and is used for teleconferencing,
telecommuting, distance education, and social relations

6.1.1 How to Sign Up

1. Start by going to zoom.us.
2. On the top right corner, click on the blue “Sign Up, It’s Free” button.
3. Enter your school email address and click “Sign Up”.
4. You'll receive an email from Zoom to activate. Go to your email and
click Activate Account.
5. You'll be redirected to fill in your first name, last name, and create a
password.
6. You’re good to go!

6.1.2 How to join Zoom Class

• Option 1: Join via meeting URL

◦ Open the email, newsletter, calendar invite, or other communication
that contains a link to the prescheduled meeting and click the URL to
join the Zoom Meeting.
• Option 2: Join through desktop client using the Meeting ID.
◦ Open the Zoom desktop app.
◦ Click on the Home Button.
◦ Click Join and type in the provided Meeting ID and your name.
• Option 3: Join using the Web client/browser.
◦ By default, users will now need to sign in to their Zoom account or
create a Zoom account when joining a
◦ meeting with the Web client. This can be disabled by the Admin or
 the User from their settings page.
• Once you’re in the meeting, you may choose to connect audio in three
different ways:
◦ Using computer audio (recommended).
◦ Comprehensive Guide to Educating Through Zoom | April 2020 | 6
◦ Dialing into a conference bridge from your phone (paid account).
◦ Have Zoom call you by entering your phone number and your
meeting will call your phone (paid account).

6.2 Cisco WebEx

Cisco Webex Meeting Center provides cost-effective enterprise video
conferencing. Host highly secure and scalable meetings from the Cisco
Collaboratio

6.3 Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams, also referred to as simply Teams, is a unified
communication and collaboration platform that combines persistent
workplace chat, video meetings, file storage, and application integration
7.0 Conclusions
A virtual classroom is an online teaching and learning environment where
teachers and students can present course materials, engage and interact with
one another, and work in groups together. The key distinction of a virtual
classroom is that it takes place in a live, synchronous setting