The site coordinator acts as the physical contact for the students, providing technical and administrative support as well as academic guidance. Some schools may schedule all their VHS students in a lab or library during a particular period. Others let students participate during their free periods. Still others allow students to participate from home. Standards for curricular design and online instruction are high.
Courses undergo rigorous evaluation before they are accepted, and they are regularly monitored.
Training is rigorous, too. Site coordinators take part in an eight-week online orientation that prepares them to assist both teachers and students. I spoke with a number of local schools involved in the VHS program. Their enthusiasm was unanimous and contagious. Collingswood, for example, is a fairly small school with 820 students, and it cannot offer an unlimited number of courses.