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The mission of the Virtual High School (Ontario) is to provide a valuable learning environment to support and encourage lifelong learners. By providing a quality online education within the greater educational community, our school offers the students more choice. While we may have changed the form of the traditional physical plant in which this mission is carried out we have not changed the provision of providing a quality education to the online student. The VHS extends into the actual homes of the students where we provide all of the essential components necessary for a quality education.

4.1 Student - Teacher Interaction

From the home and in their own time, the student interacts in meaningful and thoughtful ways with their teachers. A host of communication tools and procedures have been developed to facilitate this essential component of a quality education. These include email, instant messaging, chat, threaded discussions, dropbox feedback device, assignment feedback devices and testing feedback devices. Students have many ways of communicating with their teacher and the teacher has many ways of communicating information and ideas to the student.

4.2 Student - Student Interaction

A host of communication tools and procedures have been developed by the Virtual High School (Ontario) to facilitate this essential component of a quality education. A student has many ways of 'talking' to other students in their own course and within groups in their own course. These include email, chat, instant messaging and threaded discussions. They may also conveniently interact with students back through time. In this way, quality exemplars of work by past students are fully accessible by the current students.

4.3 Student - Administration Interaction

Through the use of profile files, the Principal may intervene early in managing attendance, proper conduct, problems within the various courses, and other attributes so that the technology does not become a deterrent to effective learning. Prompt and early intervention solves small problems before they become impediments to the learning process. Student has quick and easy access to the Principal via email, chat and instant messaging.

4.4 Student - Resources Interaction

From their home, the student has access to quality online courses, select resources provided by the teacher to enhance the learning experience, connections to the public library system within their community, a host of online libraries, as well as search engines which bring the collected knowledge base currently online to the student in an effective manner. The student will also have access to both career information which is being built into every course to meet with Ministry expectations of the curriculum and more general career information provided on an 'as-needed' basis.

4.5 Parent - School Interaction

The parents and/or guardians of students and the parents with the permission of adult students, may have access to the student's online course including assessment and evaluation items. This allows the parent(s) to become more involved with the education of their son or daughter. Electronic grade books, report cards, online conferencing and direct phone contact with the teacher also promote more parental involvement. News items may be posted online at the Virtual High School (Ontario) website on occasion by the Principal to an area viewable by parents and the broader community.

Parents have the responsibility and opportunity to work with their son or daughter in the planning of their secondary school education. The final decision of the course selection of students under the age of eighteen rests with the parents. Even where the school has recommended a particular group of subjects, a parent may substitute one subject for another in the group, after consulting with the Principal. All students and their parents should consider seriously the advice and recommendation of the school. The consequences of course selection can be extremely important whether students plan to work, or attend college or university. Detailed courses of study are available at the school website for perusal.

4.6 Hardware and Software Requirements

Learners participating in on-line courses should have access to hardware that meets or exceeds the following standards. Students with access to equipment that does not meet these standards may experience slow interactivity, limited interactions and/or wait periods for file downloads.

Recommended Desktop Standards:
PIII, 256 MB, Macintosh G3, or better (minimum: P II 128MB). Windows XP Service Pack 2, OS 10.3, or better (minimum: Windows 98, Mac OS 8.6). Internet Explorer 6.0 or better (minimum: Internet Explorer 5.5.) Adobe Acrobat Reader 6 or better (minimum: Reader 5). Windows Media Player 9. Macromedia plug-ins (including mandatory: Flash). A current version of the Java virtual machine. A DSL or better connection to the Internet. Speakers. Monitor (screen resolution 800 x 600, 16 bit colour) or better. Printer. Scanner.

Data Transmission Standards:
TCP/IP. Minimum Bandwidth Standards Single Computer: modem. LAN - Switched 10/100 Mb.

Additional Software:
A typical “Office” suite of applications; specifically, a word processor application, spell checker, equation editor, and a spreadsheet application are mandatory. Some courses may require access to some OSAPAC software, specifically at this time Geometer’s Sketchpad, Simply Accounting or Smart Ideas. It is recommended that up-to-date virus, spyware, and adware protection be implemented, as deemed necessary.