Statistics indicate that more than 1.5 million students attended fully online or blended learning programs during the 2009-10 school year, and more school districts are turning to online instruction for its expanded curriculum offerings, flexibility, and cost-saving potential. Some experts predict that roughly half of high school courses will be offered online by 2019.

For the rest of the article, go to How to start a successful virtual learning program

The school is operated by Connections Education, a Baltimore-based provider of virtual education programs, and Ombudsman, a Nashville-based company that serves students who learn better in non-traditional settings.

The setting appears to work for sophomore Sapphire Doss, 17. She attended Detroit Academy of Arts and Sciences where she said she received A’s and B’s, but fell in with the wrong crowd.

For the rest of the article, go to Dropouts revive dreams at alternative high school

National Connections Academy

For the rest of the article, go to National Distance Education Week – November 7 – 11, 2011 

If you’re a traditional school moving to an online model or a virtual school looking for blended learning best practices, join us for a free webinar presented by eSchool News to learn how educators like you are erasing the limits of education and driving results through a blended approach to learning.

For the rest of the article, go to Erasing the Limits: Sharpening Your Students’ Edge while Watching Your Bottom Line through Blended Learning

Byczkowski hopes her degree will allow her to move more freely into new job opportunities within the federal government. But recent controversy surrounding for-profit institutions that have fueled runaway growth by offering online degrees has cast a shadow over virtual learning. The question is how Byczkowski—or the millions of other online learners—can be sure they’re getting their money’s worth.

Many of the schools that embraced online technology in its early days were night schools or correspondence programs, like Strayer University, a for-profit school that began in 1892 as a small business college for working adults in Baltimore. Ditto University of Phoenix, which opened in 1976 catering to working people with its convenient locations in unlikely college towns like Timonium and “campuses” in high-rise office space.

“Online courses are in some ways an electronic version of correspondence courses that have been around a long time,” says Terry Cooney, interim provost at Towson University, who still has the lesson plans from the nursing correspondence course his grandmother took almost 100 years ago. “It’s not that the idea of distance education is brand new … We’re all looking at what the best uses are of [online education] as it evolves.”

Towson now offers four master’s degrees online, along with one undergraduate degree and three advanced certificates. But it is hardly the first state school to do so. University of Maryland University College, based in Adelphi, near Silver Spring, got its start in 1947 offering evening classes to military personnel returning from the war, then broadened its reach with courses on bases in Europe and Asia. Under that model, most of UMUC’s enrollment was overseas—until the 1990s, when the university became an early adopter of online learning. “We grew dramatically,” says Marie Cini, vice president and dean for the School of Undergraduate Studies. “We now have far more online students than face-to-face students, and our stateside enrollments are far greater than Europe and Asia.”

Today, UMUC offers 107 degree and certificate programs entirely online. Eighty-five percent of undergrads are taking online courses or fully online degrees. The majority of the graduate classes are mostly or entirely online.

The demographics of UMUC’s students have changed, too. Although the school’s roots are military, today, more than 40 percent of its students are civilians, and the typical age of an undergraduate student is early 30s. “We became very good at adult learning and being flexible and accessible,” Cini says, “and if you do that for a military student you know how to do that for any adult who has a complicated life.”

For the rest of the article, go to Getting an e-Ducation

Virtual High School Elects New Board Members

Education industry leaders Dr. Mark McQuillan, Michael Ehrhardt and Martha Coakley join Virtual High School Board of Directors.

September 22, 2011, Maynard, MA – Virtual High School Global Consortium (http://www.govhs.org), the pioneer of K-12 online learning and course design for teachers, today announced the election and addition of three new members to their Board of Directors, bringing the representation to 13 members. The newly elected officials include Dr. Mark McQuillan, Michael Ehrhardt and Martha Coakley.

“We are rapidly realizing our vision for how VHS can forge new paths in online education and serve more schools in more ways,” said Liz Pape, President & CEO of VHS. “Therefore, it’s imperative that we have the counsel of a strong board who can help guide our strategic direction and rapid growth. Our new Board members all have a tremendous amount of expertise in a variety of different aspects of education that will prove to be invaluable as we continue to grow and expand our services to schools.”

McQuillan is an educational writer, researcher and former teacher who has spent his entire career in education. He served as Commissioner of Education for the Connecticut State Board of Education until his resignation this year. He holds advanced degrees from Harvard University and has served in a number of administrative capacities, including Superintendent, Deputy Commissioner of Education and Chief Operating Officer of the Massachusetts Department of Education. The author of several publications, he has written extensively about curriculum and staff development, leadership training and strategic planning.

For the rest of the article, go to Press Release: Virtual High School Elects New Board Members

It is Pearson’s first acquisition of a purely online academy, and adds weight to a rash of purchases of more conventional educational institutions.

Pearson bought its first educational institute in 2009, with the acquisition of Wall Street English, a chain of English-language schools in major cities throughout China. In 2010 it went on to take a 75pc stake in CPI, a South African university with campuses around the country.

Based in Maryland, Connections’ online academies are targeted at students that cannot stick to ordinary schooling hours, either because they have special needs or because they are exceptionally gifted outside academia and are pursuing careers in the sports or the arts.

The service currently serves more than 40,000 students in the American public school system, and has grown its revenues by 30pc for each of the past three years.
For the rest of the article, go to Pearson buys US ‘virtual school academies’ for $400m.

The 2011-2012 school year marks the 10 year anniversary for Connections Academy, the award-winning, fully accredited provider of high-quality, highly accountable virtual schooling for students in grades K through 12. The virtual learning pioneer celebrates its decade of serving students and families with major milestones: more than 30,000 students will get their education from 22 Connections Academy full-time virtual schools spanning 21 states. New Connections Academy schools serving students in the coming school year include: Georgia Connections Academy; Louisiana Connections Academy; Oklahoma Connections Academy; and Utah Connections Academy. Still more students will benefit from the flexible and online private school option, National Connections Academy.

For the rest of the article. go to Connections Academy Virtual Public School Students Head Back To School — Without Leaving Home

In addition, as Connections Academy co-founder Mickey Revenaugh points out in our story, districts that contract with for-profit companies like hers can offer a wider range of online options than if they had to build it all themselves. It’s not just the rural school in Arkansas that can now offer Mandarin. It’s that amazing online math curriculum that you want your students to benefit from, or the turnkey solution that will allow districts to serve families that opt out of public schooling for religious or political reasons.

For the rest of the article, go to Mutually Assured Learning