Virtual education refers to a variety of teaching formats that don’t involve students and instructors collaborating in person, at least not in the same room. While some of these forms of education do involve real-time meetings, the teacher and student usually are in different locations and connected via computer to each other. Moreover, not all forms of virtual education feature real time connections. Sometimes material is prepared in advance and any discussion occurs with time delays, such as discussion over email. These varied forms of virtual learning continue to increase in popularity and provide alternatives to the face-to-face learning environment of the traditional classroom.