She is earning her master's in online teaching from the California State University in Hayward. It helps if the student is an adult learner, someone who has already completed a degree and has the maturity and desire for further studies. After all, thousands of teenagers are enrolled in distance-learning universities all over Asia. Not that a conventional distance school can automatically transform itself into a virtual university. Converting existing hardcopy into electronic format and making it available through a browser is not online education.
Good support is important.
In online education, you need to provide opportunities for similar activities through e-mail, mailing lists, chats, newsgroups and bulletin boards. A few institutions are totally online. Students have access to tutors to answer questions. They write all their essays and tests online. Both schools welcome international students.