Learning at Georgia Virtual School

Hearing school bells ring, lockers closing, and school bus engines running are becoming sounds of the past. Classrooms are no longer four-wall rooms filled with uniformed learners sitting in desks and chairs. Learners are no longer wearing backpacks filled with heavy and outdated textbooks. Learners are now using mobile devices, tablets, smartphones, desktops, and laptops. Georgia’s educational system includes learners with diverse needs: 1,639,077 enrolled in 2,289 schools (Georgia Department of Education, 2011). In 2005-2006, an estimated 700,000 K-12 learners were enrolled in online courses (Picciano & Seaman, 2007). In 2009, more than 3 million K-12 learners have taken an online course (Horn & Staker, 2011). Research suggests that by 2019, more than 50% of high school courses will be offered online (Christensen & Horn, 2008). Georgia Virtual School, established by Georgia Department of Education, is set up like a Georgia public school without a physical location. The address is a web URL (Hawkins, 2013).