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Virtual Virginia reports steady enrollment, expanding LMS outreach and professional learning
Summary
Virtual Virginia updated the advisory committee on K–12 and summer enrollment, statewide learning management system usage and outreach resources, and growth in professional learning and micro-credentials.
Dr. Brian Mott, executive director of Virtual Virginia, told the Virtual Learning Advisory Committee that Virtual Virginia’s K–12 instruction, statewide learning management system (LMS) and professional learning programs remained in steady use and were expanding, with summer-session enrollment continuing to grow.
Mott said the program’s April 1 snapshot shows stable full‑time and part‑time enrollment and that summer session is expected to exceed last year’s numbers. “Most people think about that program when they think about Virtual Virginia, but we also have a very popular summer session available statewide, the statewide learning management system, and our professional learning program is growing as well,” he said.
The nut graf: The update underscores Virtual Virginia’s threefold role—delivering online courses, hosting a statewide LMS and offering professional learning—while emphasizing that outreach course resources and LMS tools are used by districts across the Commonwealth to fill local course gaps and to support teachers’ digital instruction.
Mott briefed the committee on several program metrics included in committee handouts. He said Virtual Virginia’s outreach resources have been downloaded more than 154,000 times since 2019, and the outreach library currently lists roughly 154 K–12 resources plus 11 adult‑education resources. For summer session, he said Virtual Virginia planned 52 courses for the year, including 39 initial‑credit and 13 credit‑recovery offerings, and that the top student requests were health/PE, economics/personal finance, world language, and advanced math. He also told members the LMS offers downloadable outreach courses that local educators can modify and reuse.
On professional learning, Mott said enrollments topped 10,000 year‑to‑date and highlighted a reading‑specialist micro‑credential that had received accelerated enrollment since July 1. “Students and families are pleased,” he said of program satisfaction surveys, noting more than 90% of students and parents reported comfort and satisfaction with Virtual Virginia courses and tools in the prior year’s surveys. He told committee members that 95% of school personnel reported satisfaction with curriculum alignment because Virtual Virginia courses are rooted in Virginia’s Standards of Learning (SOLs).
Travis Blankenship of Maguire Consulting joined the meeting to note the statewide LMS includes familiar platforms such as Canvas and other learning management tools used statewide; committee materials also referenced Canvas by name. The committee discussed how the LMS functions as a hub for resources and how local districts can download and adapt Virtual Virginia outreach courses.
Members asked about distinctions between full‑time virtual schools and part‑time course users and how summer enrollment is tracked; Mott said his April data did not include summer session final enrollments and numbers would shift as summer registration closed. Committee members also described local programs that predated the pandemic and others that expanded services since 2020.
Ending: The committee received the update and materials in its packet and moved into breakout discussions on the EdTech plan, the virtual learning hub website and the governor’s report on virtual programs. Committee members asked for more historical and division‑level data to be reflected in statewide reporting and for clearer distinctions between Virtual Virginia offerings and locally provided virtual programs.
