The VHS Collaborative Blog

It's here. After many months of preparation, VHS is ready to introduce our new identity as The VHS Collaborative. This is a very exciting time as we launch our new website, update our look and feel, and refresh our messages.

Many people have asked, "Why change your name?" I think the prevailing thought from those who know and love us as Virtual High School Global Consortium is "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." And, they are right. VHS is stronger and better than ever before. Our high quality programs are engaging and robust. Our name is known and loved by the tens of thousands of students, teachers, and school administrators that have had the chance to be part of our programs. So why make this change? Well, there are several reasons.

Here they are:

First, the name Virtual High School has become generic. We started out as the first organization to offer online courses to high school students, but now, there are many other "virtual high schools." People are confused.

Second, we aren't a virtual high school. We don't matriculate students or grant diplomas. Many people who see our name assume that we are a full time program that is taking students out of traditional schools. They don't understand that our goal is to supplement, not supplant, the classroom experience.

Third, we offer so much more than just online courses for high school students. Many people don't realize from our name that we offer middle school level courses, online professional development for educators, private course offerings, custom development and grant partnerships, and blended learning support for schools.

Why "The VHS Collaborative"? If you are going to change your name, people ask, why not change it to something really different that reflects what you do? Well, as you may know, we tried that route. We held a contest and asked our member schools and supporters to come up with a new name. We got lots of suggestions. Actually, we reviewed over 500 suggestions. Many were fun and creative, but most were already being used by someone else, and the others just didn't feel like us.

So, we decided to become The VHS Collaborative. The name is deeply connected to our roots and familiar to all who know us as "VHS." And, it emphasizes the one thing that is most important to us: the collaborative nature of our online courses and of the partnerships we form with educators and schools.

As we begin this new stage in our journey, and celebrate our 15th anniversary next fall, we're glad to be working with so many talented students and dedicated educators. It's our teachers that make our co-synchronous courses so rich and engaging for our students, and make the global nature of our classrooms come alive.  The passion that we share with our members for high quality collaborative online education that inpires, ignites and deepens learning for all students, no matter where they live, is the essense of what we hope to reflect in our new identify.  We hope you will join us on this journey.