ARVIN -- You've heard of students hitting the books in summer school, but a growing number of local high school students is turning to the Internet to get the grades they need to graduate.

With the click of a mouse and the stroke of a few keys, about 200 local high school students are finishing their high school diplomas through the Worldwide Web.

"They can do their assignments anywhere that they get the internet," said Melissa Boatman, the dean of instruction at Arvin High School. "They don't have to be on campus every day for the full amount of time so that gives them the flexibility to use whatever time they have to finish the assignments."

The online curriculum kicked off this spring at Arvin, Ridgeview and Bakersfield high schools, and helped 172 students stay the course and graduate on-time. For the summer, it expanded to another campus to help students who didn't get to graduate finish the classes they previously failed.

"It gives me an opportunity to make up credits on the classes I failed in school," said Alex Pineda, a senior at Arvin High School. "I can take it online and get my credits."

The program could eventually be used to help some students who want to get ahead complete some classes early. The coursework is accepted by public universities in California.

"The biggest difference is online courses don't offer the ability to have that interaction with a classroom full of other students," Boatman said. "But what students can do is sit and focus, and they're getting a lot of the work done and being successful at it."

Pineda says the coursework is helping him get back on track.

"In school you have your friends and you get distracted, and here online you get focused on your work without anybody distracting you," he said.

For those worried about an apparent lack of human interaction, there is alway at least one teacher on-hand to collect quizzes and correct mistakes to make sure the students are making consistent progress.