kentucky virtual university
the university () was founded in 1997 by the commonwealth of kentucky and its council on postsecondary education, and began operations in 1999. it is the learning network for kentucky’s colleges and universities, and also allows students to register through kvu for courses at multiple institutions. the system currently offers 200 courses that can be transferred across colleges. kyvu does not grant degrees, these are granted by the member institutions. so far, because it acts only as a clearinghouse for electronic courses, kyvu has not needed accreditation.
california virtual university
launched in september 1997, cvu (www.california.edu) is an example of an online venture that failed. from its inception, it was never entirely clear whether cvu would act, like kyvu, as a mere database and registration devise serving a consortium of state colleges and universities, and funded by these, or develop into a self-financing educational brokerage firm charging for its services and selling educational material through e-commerce. by the end of 1998, 95 institutions had registered over 1,600 courses at cvu, which had received $6.1 million in start-up costs from the state. but since cvu itself did not offer any degrees or registration, student interest waned after it became clear that they still had to register at from local institutions. this also affected the number of visitors needed for successful e-commerce. the three participating university systems then withdrew their commitment to subsidize cvu with $1 million each for three years, and cvu folded in april 1999. cvu is currently a mere web page, maintained by the california board of regents, simply listing available courses from california universities. (dirr, 33; downes, 1-15.)
colorado state university
csun (http://www.colostate.edu/) in fort collins, co, offers besides its regular program since 1967 distance courses. currently 14 degrees, mostly masters and a few phds, can be earned entirely through distance learning, though not entirely online. most are in engineering, business and human services. about 1,000 students are currently enrolled. each week, students receive a videotape of the class, and are assigned homework that must be completed online. an important marketing tool is that while a higher fee is charged for out-of-state students taking classroom instruction, distance learners pay in-state tuition.
walden university
the university (www.waldenu.edu), based in minneapolis, was founded in 1970 to offer academic degrees up to the phd (mainly in business studies) through distance learners. walden u is accredited by ncasc, and offers various forms of financial aid. the majority of walden u’s courses are now offered online. the university is a typical example of a traditional for-profit distance learning college that has moved online.
jones international university
jones international university (www.jonesinternational.edu), based in denver, colorado, was founded in 1993 as a language school and expanded into business instruction. the university was accredited by the north central association of schools and colleges in march 1999. over 1,000 students have graduated since 1995. though a private for-profit institution, jiu, like a non-profit institution, accepts transfer credit and even provides small stipends to needy students. a noteworthy fact is that despite jiu’s reputation for high-tech, the electronic equipment required is not overly sophisticated or expensive.
athena university
athena university (www.athena.edu) is a non-profit branch of the virtual university online, founded in 1994 and reorganized in 1997 as vousi, or virtual university online services international, inc. vousi is composed of a profit-making arm offering training and consulting to corporations, and two non-profit ventures, athena university, and athena academy. athena university, consisting of an office in columbus, missouri, is a truly “virtual campus” since it has no traditional branch. athena university grants several liberal arts bachelor degrees of uncertain accreditation (the website does not note accreditation for these, and neither does dirr 2000, p. 35), and an mba awarded through the école commerciale supérieure in pau/france, a french private business college that is accredited by the french ministry of education.
a special category of colleges, often but improperly discussed in literature about distance education, are the few that grant degrees entirely by competency-exams, such as regents’ college in albany, ny, founded in 1971, (), and western governors’ university, founded in 1997 by the governors of 13 western states,(), (dirr 1999, 29). but regents’ and wgu only provide exams, not instruction. regents’ offers optional reading material for its exams. wgu only suggests optional online courses from other institutions, which must be paid separately to the providing university. regents’ is accredited, but wgu has problems gaining accreditation. (seattle p-i.com 11 oct. 1999). both public institutions, since they do not provide any form of instruction, are outside the scope of this report.
3. virtual schools
the internet improved the attraction of distance learning for k-12 schools, allowing for the creation of web pages posting homework, schedules and scanned pictures of class projects, as well as allowing students to do research online and therefore increasing their ability to teach themselves. a superlative example of a school using virtual education tools is the newly opened sage hill school in newport beach, ca, a not-for-profit private school. thanks to donations by wealthy benefactors, the school features fiber-optic wiring, classes enhanced by powerpoint presentations and video streaming, interactive smart books, and other cutting-edge technology.(los angeles times online, 9 october 2000). however, such schools do not offer complete online-courses or degrees. the online instruction is only a component of the face-to-face class.
teaching online classes to school students, as opposed to college students, raises a host of pedagogical and other issues, and few high-school programs, public or proprietary, have already made the full transition to the “virtual school” where teenagers can chose online courses over traditional ones and even earn high school diplomas entirely online. online courses and degrees for schools are developing more slowly than for college students. to a much larger degree than college education, secondary education for teenagers is still provided by brick-and-mortar schools, whether public or private. the main reason remain state regulations about attendance and curriculum. as with colleges, learning networks are the most common form of online education for high school students. a small number of online branches of existing schools, whether traditional brick-and-mortar or correspondence institutions, exists, and an even smaller number of virtual schools existing only in cyberspace, most being public. while the market for online academic degrees is growing rapidly, the creation of virtual high schools is still very tentative. also, the public institutions creating them do not see them as equal alternatives, but as the best way to reduce the number of teenage drop-outs. the data for the following case studies was taken from the university of california at santa cruz study “the virtual high school,” january 2000 (vhs.ucsc.edu/vhs/casestudies.htm), and from the websites of the schools.
as with colleges, the most common form of “virtual schooling” is the pooling of online courses. despite their names, these are not “virtual” high schools but learning networks, and use online classes to supplement traditional classroom teaching. examples include the cyberschool, the virginia internet high school, the kentucky virtual high school, or the virtual high school consortium, founded in 1996 to share internet courses between 43 high schools in 13 states. generally, students must take these courses through their school of enrollment, which also grants credit and issues the high school diploma.
a few states have degree-granting correspondence high-school programs for isolated rural students, which now include online courses, e.g. in north dakota or the electronic high school in moab, utah. however, most public programs of that type, including the two above, remain basically print-based because as public institutions they must keep courses accessible to those who do not have access to a computer. in some states it is possible for a teenager to earn a high school diploma entirely through online courses, and to receive a degree issued by a “virtual” school with no physical campus. the pioneers of that type of instruction were the florida high school, founded by orange county and alachua county public school districts to provide teenagers and adults (homebound, incarcerated, etc) with an education, and choice2000, founded in 1995 by the perris, ca school district. in the latter, the student must log in daily and spend several hours on the computer, or face truancy charges, and perform physical education requirements, with the parents affirming on a form that the 5 weekly hours of physical education were done.
a few private schools provided print-based distance instruction for children, and now also do so online. their market was greatly increased by the growth of the home-schooling movement of the 1970s and 1980s, which by 1990 had become a legal alternative to traditional schooling in most states. examples of dual providers are the dennison academy in los angeles, ca, founded in 1981 as an alternative day school that since 1986 awards high school degrees by exam. in 1999 it opened its “online-internet high school”; clonlara school in ann harbor, mi, was founded in 1967 as a day school with a distance education program for american children abroad. by 1995, clonlara enrolled 50 students on campus and 5,000 in its distance program. in fall 1994, it opened a “compuhigh” branch; another dual provider is keystone national high school. a very few high schools were virtual from the start, with no previous campus or correspondence existence, such as the proprietary willoway cyberschool,founded in 1995 in south heidelberg, pa and the village learning center, founded in 1997.
because high school diplomas are nowadays rarely a terminal degree, accreditation is a very important issue for online high school diplomas. online courses and degrees provided by a public school system already accredited by the regional accrediting association, seem rarely to encounter accreditation problems. neither do online programs created by traditional distance learning schools. but private online high schools that have been created online do. these two types do not differ so much in the technology used than in their practical use for the student: that is, will a course or program will be accepted towards a recognized diploma or not.
below are some virtual learning networks and high school in more detail:
university of nebraska
the university of nebraska at lincoln has a division of continuing studies with an independent study high school program (unl-ishs). since 1929, it offers students in remote locations the opportunity to obtain high school diplomas through correspondence courses. there are currently approximately 16,000 enrollments at the ishs, with students from all 50 states and 120 other countries. most courses are still offered by using printed material, tape and videos. the web-version mirror the print edition, just online. one reason may be the requirement that students taking the print or the web version gain a similar education. the university of nebraska also houses a star schools-funded grant project entitled class (communications, learning and assessment in a student-centered system, (class.com), which will by fall 2001 enable students to chose among 54 online courses the 40 courses they need for a diploma. the branch offering these classes is a profit-making branch of unl.
north dakota department of public instruction
since 1935, the north dakota department of public instruction, division ofindependent studies, (www.dis.dpi.state.nd.us), offers high school diplomas to students in remote areas. most courses are still offered in print, and the program’s web site stressed that the 52 courses available online are identical to those taught in print. the incentive to put print material online may here consist mainly of savings in terms of postage, as well as quicker communication by e-mail between student and instructor.
electronic high school
the electronic high school (ehs.uen.org) was created by the grand county school district in moab, utah, to provide students with high school courses online, in addition to traditional correspondence courses. so far one-quarter of the high school courses are available online, but it is expected that 100 percent will be so soon. the high school diploma is issued through arches education center, which grants distance high school diplomas. ehs is not accredited as a separate entity. the curriculum is the same as used in adult education classes and alternative high school. courses, including online, are very traditional and strongly textbook based: read the chapter, answer the questions, and take the test. students may re-take exams and re-do assignments as many times as necessary until 80% competency is reached. tests must be taken in the presence of a pre-arranged proctor who will sign an affidavit that the participant took the test on his/her own without the use of notes. though the school mainly targets utah teenagers, the school will accept students from another state than utah and even abroad. but such students will not be issued degrees and must determine in advance whether their school of enrollment would accept credit.
the cost is moderate, $55 per course tuition plus a $100 refundable deposit to cover damage/loss of books, tests, and videotapes. this fee is only charged for non-residents, home school students, summer students, and students repeating a course from the county.
one form of “virtual schooling” is the pooling of educational resources by a group of public schools otherwise unable to provide that course, creating not a “virtual high school” but a learning network. in this case, the bulk of the student’s coursework still is provided by traditional classroom teaching, such as in the cyberschool and the kentucky virtual high school. generally, high school students must take these courses through their school of enrollment, which also grants credit and issues the high school diploma. in california and florida, however, it is already possible for a teenager to take all courses leading to a high school diploma through the internet, and even to receive a degree issued by a “virtual” school with no physical campus.
