Content Management—Students use web-enhanced software through Blackboard.com. They are presented with basic course and personal information management tools through a user-friendly “My Institution” portal interface. A course consists of a navigation path, a button bar, and acontent frame. The button bar links users to the course content as outlined.

• Announcements – Welcome, communication of current information
• Course Information – Syllabus, teacher expectations, student responsibilities, grading policy
• Staff Information – Instructor contact information
• Course Documents & Assignments – Content based on subject curriculum guide and Standards of Learning contains units and lessons with supporting documents, projects, discussions, labs, simulations, and other learning activitie

Communication—Students and instructors enjoy enhanced collaboration with asynchronous discussion boards and synchronous chat tools, including:

• Collaborative learning through discussion boards, real-time virtual classroom interaction, and group communication
• Participation in forums by sorting messages according to thread, author, date, or subject; track read and unread messages; and collect multiple messages onto one page for easy reading,comparison, and printing
• Participation in live online text chats, draw on a shared whiteboard, and collaboratively browse and graphically mark up web pages in an updated virtual classroom environment
• Submission of work and assignments through the digital dropbox
• Creation of student groups for collaborative work through discussion boards, virtual classroom activities, and file exchanges

For more information, contact:
Reginald Fox rfox@ycsd.york.va.us

Courses offered in Virtual High School Academy include