The first site I looked at for eLearning was the Florida Virtual School. On first glance the site is very business like, with no frills. I was uneager to search this site, but if I hadn’t I believe that I would have been missing out on a good online school.

This site was easy to navigate and it took me no time to find a demo of the classes they offered. I chose health because of my interest in the field. I was very impressed with the “Cardio Center” demo. The information provided was high in meeting the Maryland State Department of Education Standards. Specifically the demo showed appropriate reading level, it engaged students in learning activities of higher order thinking, and not only holds students accountable for mastery of learning but provides information for live long skills.

I was also impressed with Florida Virtual School regarding the information it provided in its mission statement and core beliefs. Many of those core beliefs directly related to the standards that the state of Maryland hold online schools accountable for. For example one core belief of the school is “that instruction should accommodate students' varied learning styles and intelligence types to assist and encourage the path and pace by which they learn best”, while criteria eight of Maryland’s checklist states “the teacher can adapt learning activities to accommodate students’ needs”.

The other part of the Florida Virtual School that I liked was the Guidance Area. Here students can view information from AP course information and student progression to information in online learning is for me.

Again on first glance I was not immediately drawn to this site. However upon exploring it I found it very informational and educational.

The second site that I looked at was the Babbage Net School. This site was very appealing to me. Not only is it user friendly but it is visually friendly. Being a visual person it was very easy for me to navigate this site.

There were some features of this site that fit high on the Maryland State checklist for evaluating online courses. On the schools frequently asked questions page I found all the information regarding what type of hardware and software requirements were needed. The school also provides information regarding teacher-student and teacher-parent interactions. Also available are digital images of the class so students get to know each other. There seems to be a great deal of interactions between the students and the teacher.

Most of the criteria on the check list I was not able to evaluate. The demo section of the site was under construction, and they state just as a stranger would not be allowed in a traditional classroom, they too do not let strangers into their classes. I was able to determine that each class is run through black board.

One thing that surprised me about the site was that it announces it is not a replacement for traditional school, just a supplement. The school promotes the benefit gained by students from traditional schooling, and only suggests the school for those with fiscal, physical, or social reasons.

While visually more appealing to me, this site was inferior to the Florida Virtual School that I first visited. The Babbage Net School, while possibly just as good of a school, was harder to find information about and not as immediately informative regard many aspects of learning.