What is a Virtual Online School? | Forest Trail Academy (2024)

Virtual online schools are schools that are available through the Internet. These schools provide students the required flexibility, self-paced learning and convenience to study from anywhere, anytime and as long as they want. This education can be highly personalized depending on the individual student’s needs and learning objectives. The teachers work remotely and are generally available full time. They usually design a structured curriculum for the kids to follow.

Virtual classrooms focus on one-on-one attention, wholesome learning and all-round development of a child. In a nutshell, an online school is a feasible alternative for the traditional school.

Online learning has become highly popular. Given the fact that most students today want to be good not only studies but a whole lot of newer things, online courses can easily be juggled with other sports or arts-related activities. While online learning is meant for all, online learning is specially beneficial to children with disabilities, special needs children, children with social phobias, academically advanced children, athlete-students, part-time employees etc.

What Is An Accredited Online School?

An accredited online school is one that is granted the accreditation status by the reputed accrediting agencies. The diploma presented by an accredited online school holds high value factor. It is widely accepted by the topmost colleges, universities and employers. This is because the diploma is granted only after the online high school student proves his mettle in challenging assessments and assignments. On the contrary, certificate from a non-accredited school is not accepted by most colleges and employers. It is due to the simple fact that such diplomas are granted to you easily, just in exchange for the cost of the course.

Accreditation can be national or regional. Regional accreditation is better suited for students since it implies that the school has well-regulated curriculum based on certain educational standards. Nationally accredited schools mostly offer vocational training that are specific only for a certain category of jobs or courses.

How To Select The Right Online High School?

While looking for an online high school, it is essential for you to look for the accreditation status first and foremost. As your career is concerned here, you should do intensive research and background check on the online institute you want to get into. Check the accrediting bodies that have granted accreditation to the online institute. These accreditation agencies should be genuine and not fake ones. For best outcome, make a list of the six regional accreditors in U.S. and then compare. You should get all these accreditation-related info from the credible website of the online high school.

You can go through the feedback given by other students and parents on the high school. For more detailed overview on how the specificonline school for high schoolworks, call the Admissions Officer and ask him all your queries. This step is essential before getting enrolled in the online school.

How To Find The Right Program?

The first question that you should ask yourself is why do you want to opt for an online school in the first place? When you focus on your purpose, you can research further on the accredited online schools that provide specific services to reduce or eliminate your specific worries. You can further contact the respective Admissions Officer of the online school to clarify as to what kind of courses they provide.

If your child has specific health-related issues, you should be all the more particular in self-educating as to what are the different specialized courses offered by the topmost accredited online high schools. It is important to ask schools how they handle your child’s type of challenge. For instance, in case your child has auditory processing disorder, an online school will work better which assigns work in writing rather than verbally. The teaching methods applied in the school can help you determining if they are a good fit for your child. You can further consider the recommendations given by your reliable and relatives.

What Are The Main Features Of An Online School?

• Online schools introduce virtual lessons in various formats such as PowerPoint presentations and audio books, interactive activities, and virtual classroom sessions.
• Online schools require healthy interaction with online teachers and peers via online platform or by phone.
• Online schools generally guarantee full-time availability of the online faculty to ensure the students are making progress day by day.
• Online schools generally incorporate planned student activities to bring out the hidden talents of students and also to promote virtual socialization.
• Students are required to submit their assignments before deadline at any cost, under normal circ*mstances.

What Are The Benefits Of Studying In An Online School?

The very online concept hands over the academic control to parents and students. Parental intervention is not necessary. It is completely the parents’ choice as to how much they want to be involved in their child’s education or not at all, in case they are working.

Here are the basic benefits of studying in an online school:

• Full-time accessibility
  Online faculty is accessible 24X7. This facilitates the students to ask their doubts at any point of the day. They can instantly get their doubts cleared.
• One-on-one focus
  Since students are able to address their individual queries to their teachers, they can learn more efficiently. This is the most healthy learning environment for every type of kid to bring out their best version.
• Flexibility and self-paced learning
  Students are free to choose their own learning pace and style. They can create their own flexible schedule after analyzing their unique learning pattern. Thus, they can progress more quickly in subjects they excel in and take extra time on subjects when needed.
• Personalization
  Online curriculum are highly customized as per the student needs. Thus, the student can experience wholesome learning with a curriculum that is specially designed for his progress.

Wider set of educational options
Online schools offer an extensive set of accredited online courses. Some of these courses might even be exclusive and might not be offered in conventional schools.