Since 2006, Stanford Online High School has been educating students successfully online through an innovative virtual classroom model. When the global pandemic closed in-person school operations across the nation, Stanford OHS instructors and staff created a series of resources for educators implementing emergency online learning plans. This Brief summarizes the recommendations from Essentials for Online Classes, emphasizing that teachers should think confidently about what has worked for them in the classroom, and then plan to replicate and adapt their pedagogical and social practices to an online environment. They should be patient with themselves and their students, and let their students be part of this online experiment. As in the physical classroom, students need to be engaged and active in the virtual classroom.
