An online school is a full school that runs over the internet. It has a timetable, teachers, homework, exams and a route to a board certificate, but no building that the child attends. The children attend live online classes from home, where a teacher teaches over video in real time, and they do the rest of their work on a computer.
Who uses an online school? It suits children for whom an ordinary school is hard to attend. These include young athletes who train for many hours a day, children whose families move often, children with long illnesses, and children in small towns who want a curriculum that no local school offers.
Consider a 13-year-old tennis player who trains every morning at an academy in Pune. Her training runs from 7 a.m. to 12 noon, and she travels to tournaments for about ten weeks a year. An ordinary school's timetable cannot fit around this. At her online school, her class meets on video from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays, in groups of about 20 children. When she is away at a tournament, she watches the recordings of the classes she missed and submits her homework from her hotel room.
The school runs on the same kinds of systems as an ordinary school. Each subject's lessons, assignments and tests sit in a learning management system (LMS). Her attendance, marks and fee payments are kept in a student information system (SIS). Teachers meet parents on video at the end of each term.
The hardest question is the certificate. A school certificate counts only if a recognised board awards it. This is explained in accreditation. In India, the main school boards affiliate schools that have their own buildings, laboratories and playgrounds. So online schools in India usually prepare their students for exams that do not need a building. One route is the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), India's national board for students who study outside regular schools. Another is an international board, such as Cambridge, whose exams students can take at an approved exam centre as private candidates. The child travels to the centre only for the exams.
Parents ask two more questions. How does the child make friends? Online schools run clubs, group projects and occasional meet-ups in cities, but a child sees classmates far less than in a building. And how much screen time is too much? Most online schools keep live classes to about four hours a day, with the rest of the work done offline.
How is an online school different from online classes for kids? Online classes add one subject, such as coding, to a child's ordinary school. An online school replaces the ordinary school, so it must teach every subject and lead to a recognised certificate.