International Research into K-12 Online Learning Summary

     After reading the article by Bacsich and Bristow (2012), I was amazed at the vastness of online learning within not only the United States but the world.  Online schools touch many areas even if just in a small way. When viewing the USA number of online learners, it seems like a large one, but when you look at the percentage, you realize that only a small percentage of US students are reached by online learning.  Canada fell in the range of a bit below or a little above the US percentage of 3% as noted in the article.  The specific information was taken from the VISCED Wiki (http://virtualcampuses.eu/index.php/Main_Page) per the article.  I find interesting some of the statistics about the European Virtual Schools.  In particular, it appears that the largest school has 14,000 students.  The comma is in an unusual place in the article.  Perhaps, it is 1,400 students.  If so, it is still a rather large school.
     The European Virtual Schools addressed the characteristics of pupil exclusion which included "pregnant young women."  This really caught my attention as well as "students with specific language needs".  As I understand it, these students must attend the European Virtual School.  A huge majority of the students at my school would meet the "students with specific language needs."  Fortunately at my school we have no "pregnant young women" that I know of.  According to the article, Australia has many virtual schools likely due to the large geographic region.
     In Asia, there are virtual schools in many areas.  I was just amazed as I viewed the list of other virtual schools is so many parts of the earth including Africa, the Middle-East (Higher Education only at this time), Latin America, and Oceania.  Other areas in the world also have online programs for education.  It obviously is expanding rapidly for many reasons.  There are many key factors that contribute to the success of an online program.  Some of which include the extent to which regular evaluations occur, leadership skills, and learning outcomes.  All of these factors are addressed in the article by Bacsich and Bristow (2012).  Several case studies were also presented of virtual schools around the world as part of the VISCED Project.


Bacsich, P., & Bristow, S. (2012). International research into K-12 online learning. 
       Retrieved from http://virtualschoolmooc.wikispaces.com/international