The Investigation of Virtual School Communications

This literature review includes studies from online virtual high schools and colleges in The United States, Canada, and around the world. The focus of these studies is communication practices within diverse virtual school communities. It also includes information regarding a meta-analysis that was performed in order to review experimental studies of online education. School communication and transactional distance are investigated through a combination of dissertations, peer-reviewed journals, and published books and studies. The review reveals that a variety of communication methods must be employed in order to facilitate effective virtual schooling. Further research which uses the results from these studies to investigate communication practices within a variety of virtual platforms could lead to best practices for virtual schooling.