Beginning June 30, 2010, VHS will be migrating all of our courses to a new Learning Management System (LMS) called Desire2Learn. As a result, VHS open access demo courses will be temporarily unavailable. Please check back in early August 2010 for updated demo course availability.

One way to better understand how the Virtual High School works is to see a VHS NetCourse. We have created demo courses, based on real VHS courses, that will not only help you become familiar with the look and feel of a VHS course, but will also show you how our courses are designed to engage students, regardless of time zone or demographic differences.

We recognize that navigating around this environment may be a bit unfamiliar at first, so we offer a brief introduction below, which you may want to read before starting the demo.

What is a VHS NetCourse like?

VHS uses a software package called Desire2Learn to design and deliver our NetCourses. Through Desire2Learn, VHS students can access their courses on any computer with an Internet connection and browser. A Desire2Learn course allows students to post assignments, communicate with their teacher (privately or publicly), participate in on-going discussions, and collaborate on group projects. All of this is done asynchronously (any time, any place) vs. synchronously (same time, same place), so that VHS students anywhere in the world can join the class.

Navigation Tips

All VHS NetCourses have ten areas that students and teachers move through on any given day.

Lessons - an area that contains all course assignments and activities. Discussions - a place where students and teachers go to participate in class discussions. The discussions area is also a place where students can ask questions of their classmates or teacher. Media Center - an area that contains all reference materials for the course. Announcements - a place that highlights posted messages for students to view upon entering a course. Grades - a place where students go to view their grades. Private Threads - each VHS student has a special discussion area where he/she can talk privately with his/her teacher. Teams - as VHS NetCourses are collaborative in nature, group work is completed in this area. Classmates - the area that lists all of the students in a single NetCourse. Teacher Info - this is where students learn information about their VHS teacher. Tools - a feature that includes items such as a Student Manual and a Digital Drop Box (this area is not available in the course demo)

Time to Explore