U.S. schools will be facing a dearth of nearly 2 million teachers over the next decade, according to the National Education Association. This year the University of Miami Online High School (UMOHS) offered a point-and-click solution.

Alison Freeman, a UMOHS physics teacher, filled a vacancy at a Chicago inner-city public high school by meeting her class over the Internet. Every day from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., students listened on headsets to her lecture and watched her draw diagrams and work out example problems on the “whiteboard.” When students wanted to interject or ask a question, they clicked the “raise your hand” button and chimed in.

“The concept of UMOHS as a solution for teacher shortages is beginning to gain momentum within school districts around the world,” says Howard Liebman, UMOHS chief operating officer and principal. “Many people think of the UMOHS solely as a full-time school and not as a school that can provide individual courses and teachers.”

Part-time options, as well as summer school sessions, career and college preparatory programs, and full-time enrollment for student-athletes, entertainers, and others who cannot attend a bricks-and-mortar school, have helped the UMOHS quintuple its growth during its three years in operation. More than 1,000 students are now enrolled in the UMOHS, which was created in 2004 under the University of Miami’s Division of Continuing and International Education.