Those who completed their schooling and further education some 50 years ago might not even think of such a strange phenomenon like ‘online high school.’ Traditionally, a school has to have an objective physical actuality. It means a school has to have a building, some educated and trained teachers, classrooms, teaching aids like black boards, chalk, duster, maps, projectors, huge number of students buzzing in the campus during the break hour, the school office, workers, guards, gardeners and, the last but not the least, a shrill bell reminding termination of classes every 45 minutes or so, and finally an end of the school hour.

Similarities and Differences

• An online high school has no buildings; but a traditional one definitely has . It, of course, has a head office from where every action of the institution is regulated. That means in place an office, pen and paper, it is the digital gadgets that manage and a big network of computers is all that is essential for administration. Only a few hands run the computer – that’s all!
• An online high school has students in all its classes; but nobody can see his/her classmates . In place of going to a particular property for classes, they switch on the computer at home and get their classes and lessons on the computer screen. Since all the students involved join the class from their own home, there is no chance they can see one another. Magic?

• An online high school has teachers in the real senses; but while the students can see and hear the teacher, the teacher cannot . It maybe that an actual teacher takes the class live, or, in most cases, it maybe a prerecorded video of a teacher taking classes. If it is a video, the student has the liberty to join the class as often as he/she likes. What a fun!
• An online high school officially admits students to a particular class . Once admitted, the students get tickets for access to the online classes. In a traditional school a student is given an identity card for access to the school, whereas an online student gets an enrolment number, a ticket and password for access to the classroom and examination.
• An online high school adopts certain well defined teaching method in the class room . The method may be very similar to that adopted in a traditional school; it may also be different to some extent. Normally, online schools have more access to high-tech methodologies than those used in a traditional class. However, the use of board, teaching aids like electronic gadgets and projectors are common in both the methods.

Rounding off

In view of certain drastic changes taking place in the actual world, the validity of the virtual education through online high school and other online institutions cannot be ruled out and should not be discouraged either. Traditional schools are already overcrowded like the metro cities. Often they are very discriminatory in many respects and weaker section is often deprived of education. In the online high school system a student has the liberty to earn and learn without depending much on parents or a third party for support. The online version is much flexible in terms of time, class-load, age, gender, social class and many other issues that are not possible in the traditional system of education. Nowadays almost 97 percent students of advanced countries have access to the internet and online facilities. It is, therefore, expected that online high school education will become even more relevant in the years to come.