Virgil worked for the Center for Informatics Research in Science and Scholarship as a Research Analyst from 2007 to 2013.  Before joining CIRSS, Virgil worked for eight years with University Outreach and Public Service at the University of Illinois as a Computer Assisted Instruction Specialist. There he performed Web design, database programming, instructional design, online course teaching, online research, program evaluation, educational consulting, and other tasks. He is still administering a longitudinal survey of online learners within the program. Among the honors he earned during this time are a WebCT Exemplary Online Course award and a Center for Transforming Student Services Best Practice award. He has numerous publications on a wide-range of policy issues and educational research.

Virgil earned an M.Ed. in Science Instruction and a B.S. with Distinction in Biochemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as well. He also has an M.S. in Biomolecular Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Virgil also earned a Ph.D. in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, College of Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. There his research has been primarily on various aspects of distance education. His current work explores pedagogical assumptions of socially organized versus independent study instructional design in distance education.