COLUMBIA - Want to learn Web design, but it's only taught in a school three counties away? Need one final credit to graduate high school?

On Thursday, Gov. Mark Sanford signed into law a bill that's intended to help.

Under the South Carolina Virtual School program, up to 3,000 students will be able to take courses online or through distance learning each semester, earning up to three credits a year and up to 12 credits total toward high school graduation.

Virtual schools are one component of a larger plan to overhaul the state's educational system, Mr. Sanford said - a plan that includes the open-enrollment proposal, the statewide charter schools plan and continued efforts to provide state funding to help parents afford private-school tuition.

"It's been a long and, at times, heated debate," the governor said. "But it's beginning to bear fruit."

The legislation expands a program, begun last summer, under which 1,921 students in 11 school districts participated this year.

The governor and lawmakers demonstrated the system by connecting online and via a video screen to a class at the Governor's School for Science and Mathematics in Hartsville.

"They're 70 miles away, but they're milliseconds away in this format," Mr. Sanford said.

With the system's sound muted, though, he and the students struggled to interact, but eventually figured it out.

"It's like dealing with the General Assembly," he joked.

The program is expected to cost $3.6 million next year.

A State Department of Education report on the feasibility of providing adult education through the virtual system is due Jan. 1.