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I think there's been an explosion in virtual schools because schools are trying to keep up with changing times. Most things are "going digital" and schools are making failed attempts to meet students where they are. Many virtual schools seem to have the right idea of using technology in innovative ways, but the implementation is just not there for many of them. If a student struggles in class with the material, it's a good guess that he or she will struggle with the same material in a different setting, especially if nothing has been done to address the core reason the student was struggling.

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I think that there is both a stigma and a misconception that online schools are easier to pass classes than at traditional schools, while also being noticeably cheaper. I think that those 3 factors lead to higher desirability to enroll, but also result in less students able to focus and keep at their work, since the learning depends only the students.

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One thing I knew about virtual learning is from the country school my cousins attended. They attended a school that averaged single digits in a class size. (In fact, the community routinely takes in foreign exchange students to keep the school open). They had a few classes that were taught online during the school day, where they would go to a classroom, watch a virtual lecture, and do assignments online.  This offered them a variety of courses that the school was otherwise unable to offer. The flip side to this, of course, was the lack of individualized learning. They talked about the lack of oversight and "control" (i.e. students cheating, texting during the day, doing assignments, etc.), not to mention the difficulty contacting and working with an instructor if there was an academic struggle. Research has consistently shown that the most important variable in high-performing classroom, is the classroom teacher. I worry about the day when/if all learning is fully online and personalized learning with a caring adult goes out the
window. This makes me especially nervous with young children. I personally believe I teach (and my students learn) SO much more than "academic" skills during our year together! Things that cannot be taught my a computer.

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Virtual, online-only schools will likely continue to grow at a prodigious rate, as most hot new technologies do. Likely they are growing simply because they are hot and new and more people are seeing them as a legitimate alternative to traditional school. My rationale to explain this continued growth despite mounting evidence that virtual school students do not perform at the same level as their average traditional school counterparts is that many people simply have not seen the statistics yet. I also expect that virtual school performance will improve as they learn better how to get kids to learn, and as students at virtual schools learn better how to manage their time and learn. I do wonder if virtual schools will ever perform as well as traditional schools.

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I think that it is a bit alarming how far behind it appears the students in virtual school were. With that being said, I would like to think more recent numbers would show a closing of this gap. First of all, there has been a huge amount of new technology developed in the 4+ years since this study, and virtual school is obviously only going to get more effective as we learn the best ways to make it work. It is a relatively new concept, and I forsee it improving rapidly in the next decade. With that being said, nothing can replace the classroom teacher.

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I think the trend is moving forward because this is the digital world, however the academic performance is low because the students have to learn extra responsibility. If they are in school they are trained to move from classrooms, have work time, lunch, etc. But given the freedom to create their own schedule - it is easy to get sucked in to the world of social media, movie's, youtube, etc. I find my students who have laptops getting easily sidetracked if I am not constantly monitoring them during work time. I have to walk around and redirect them to their work because they get bored very easily.

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I believe that virtual learning for early grades could be dangerous. Social development aside, the primary missing component would be learning how to study. A basic knowledge of how to interpret and accumulate knowledge needs to be present before an online method would yield satisfactory results. Perhaps that is where the virtual schools lag behind.

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More and more colleges offer online courses, so I think more high schools are beginning to offer online course to help prepare their students for college. I think this option is also becoming more popular as more educators become aware about it. I am worried about this option becoming readily available for grades below the 11-12 grade level. Online courses are nice and convenient, but I don't think they should ever completely replace the "normal" teacher-led classroom. Students need to have real interactions with people. Elementary and even middle schoolers need these interactions to help them learn social skills. They need to learn how to actually communicate and interact with people without having a screen in front of them.

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My first thought was that  this data is now 5 years old and there have probably (hopefully) been improvements to the virtual school system with the development and improvement of e-teaching resources. Then I noticed the note at the bottom. It took back to one of the concepts that came up in the flipped classroom module- teachers are now teaching kids HOW to learn. Part of the failure of virtual schools may be that students have not been properly prepared and guided on how to learn virtually. I also wonder how much the curriculum has been updated since the 2012 research. I worked in Florida which has a huge virtual school system. One of the courses students could take online was PE...yes, PE! Most of what they had to do was input stats for timed miles, push-ups, etc. The didn't have to document/track/show proof of their runs, and to be honest, I'm not sure what else they were asked to do. I think if we want e-learning to catch up, there needs to be a hybrid of online curriculum and teacher facilitation, as well as a commitment to teaching students how to learn in this format.

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It seems to me that one idea can never entirely replace another just because it has positive benefits. I think that balancing the learning environment by blending virtual class time with actual class time could be the answer. Too much of a good thing never turns out well for anyone. Balance is the key to all things. I also feel this way because our readings show so many positive benefits to e-learning. For example, the ability to learn self motivation and have a flexible schedule in order to have time for other important aspects of life. The downsides to e-learning seem to be few, but impactful. On that end, it looks like students who struggle with keeping a schedule and monitoring their own habits don't gain the benefits of e-learning. Possibly by blending the elements of e-learning and brick and mortar schools may we end up with a highly effective educational system. I also agree with everyone else's postings that some newer more updated statistics would be helpful in understanding what we are dealing with concerning this issue.

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To me, it seems that the large growth in virtual school enrollment is due to the increase in awareness that this option is available. It also helps that users are becoming increasingly comfortable operating in an online-only environment. As schools respond to students' greater usage of technology and the need for more flexibility in schooling (for example- students suspended for behavioral issues or those with health issues that proclude regular attendance.

The second graph seems dubious to me, even though I'm sure that the figures are accurate. I would guess that this substandard performance is due to (or related to) two major issues: 1. Lack of time management skills necessary for success in an online-only environment, and 2. The difficulty of scheduling in-person tutoring or help for those students needing more personalized assistance.

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I think with this data being a little outdated, it would be interesting to see what that latest trends were telling us. I believe that digital education is going to be increasing in the future, but I don't think it should replace classroom instruction. I think with online education we put a lot of the responsibility in the hands of the student,  and I think a lot of students would thrive a lot better with more structure.

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I think the recent trend comes from the easier access to the online learning. There are more gateways for teachers to use to present the topic. Also the cost of the technology has gone down. More people are able to get the technology to take the course. I think there is also more of a push to integrate technology in the classroom. Students feel more comfortable taking online courses. It is the growing trend and I’m sure it will continue to rise. I’m interested to see what the graphs look like now since this one was from 2011-2012.

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I would like to see what more recent figures show in performance. I imagine that in 2011-2012 the virtual school system was very green and students were very unfamiliar with it.
The explosion of online schools I believe is the new fad in education. Colleges are using them more and more and in preparation for college, high schools are going to them as well. Online classes are great but there is a value in a teacher physically seeing and interacting with a student every day for 45-50 minutes or more every day. With online classes they don't have a lot of ways to, for a lack of a better word, punish students for not doing the work on time or studying the content. If anything online tests can be easily manipulated to find answers and not really retain or know the information. In my experiences, there is very little if any retention of information from content tested over online.