Virtual campus

A virtual campus refers to the online offerings of a college or university where college work is completed either partially or wholly online, often with the assistance of the teacher, professor, or teaching assistant. Many established and mainstream colleges and universities now offer many courses (or entire degree programs) either partially or wholly online. Other for-profit companies notable for their primary online presence include DeVry University and Strayer University.

Texas Tech University has begun the process of creating a simulated (online) campus. Primary and secondary college students from several different countries will soon create avatars and log on to a completely digital Tech campus. There are an estimated 4,500 such institutions with total enrollments approaching perhaps 2,000,000.

The majority of students using virtual campuses to obtain online degrees are adults students for three main reasons:

Schools use a variety of tools for conducting classes – typically called learning management systems (LMS) or course management systems (CMS). CMS may also refer to CONTENT Management Systems. Some notable LMS' include Moodle, WizIQ, Sakai, Serco, Blackboard, Sharepoint, WebCT, Angel, Alphastudy, it's learning, Desire2Learn, EdMastery, Elluminate and eCollege. EdMastery delivers customizable assessments through a simple software interface to aid teachers in assessing students on the mastery of skills required by state or local test objectives. Blackboard, WizIQ and webCT command the lion's share of the commercial market, and Blackboard (as of Spring 2006) acquired WebCT.

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