Virtual learning environments have been around for a long time now and in the last decade their use has become widespread with post-16 learning providers in Britain.
Two years ago James Clay of Gloucestershire College posed the question, was the VLE dead? This question was prompted by the emergence of the many new free on-line tools in recent years. Could all VLE activity be done in the cloud without the need for an institutional VLE?
There was an interesting on-line debate on this topic but I would suggest that the general conclusion was that the VLE is still relevant and has a major part to play in the delivery of education for the foreseeable future.
However, the use of VLEs is constantly evolving. So what are the current trends and what do you envisage for the future? Has assessment become a more significant element in the VLE feature set? Is the VLE part of a much more integrated suite of tools encompassing ILPs (electronic individual learning plans), e-Portfolios and Assessment tools? Or is there a larger vision for VLEs becoming an element of a personalised learner portal? Many businesses are using VLEs for distance learning and many colleges are now considering this route. After all it is proven in the context of the University of London International Programmes and the Open University.
What is your view on the future of the VLE?
Martin
The VLE is dead long live the PLE
Education has to stop its obsession with itself and shift attention to its learners and their life long resources.
The focus should be about learners Personal Learning Environments – their personal resources and networks.
I agree, it’s much more personal now. Cloud based tools such as Evernote enable students to keep resources and take notes across all their devices and keep them permanently (well as permanent as anything in the cloud) available no matter where they learn. These need to be integrated into the VLE and learning process, allowing students to take the information away and personalise it.
Maybe it is a good thing for learning to be independent of organisational control. If not, how can the learning provider manage learning if tutors and students are working independently in the cloud? Maybe they can’t or shouldn’t but if you think they should then how do they do this when they cannot see what tutors and students are doing/using?
The vle as a walled garden within which only certain tools can be used and everything is restricted to a limited user group is doomed. I think moodle and others recognise that permeable walls have to be possible, allowing widgets, apps and rss feeds so that there is space for the fresh air of external content to be incorporated and displayed is a big leap forward. Another trend may be that some aspects of vle activity can be openly viewed by those not on the course. Certainly it is important that a vle doesn’t preclude participation from “external” invited guests by making access manageable by those running the course rather than only those managing the site. Collaboration and creativity need structural support to be effective. In short the vle should be a springboard, not a prison.
some form of Learning Platform is going to be essential but not necessarily the current crop of commercial systems. Next week I’m launching a Google docs based system in a Secondary School to replace Fronter which just isn’t of any use. It will have the capacity and ability to change with the user and the institution. True personalised learning?
The Moodle2 approach is very interesting. Moodle is seen as the gateway to learning resources but these need not reside within the VLE they could exist externally in repositories and accessed via links and interfaces with Moodle2. Is this the ideal solution?
I think you still need somewhere pulling everything together otherwise we’ll just go full circle and end up with disparate resources all over the place, which is where we were before!
I’ve always believed that the VLE is the central portal which should be linking off to external systems and resources that don’t all need to be stored within the platform. The Moodle repository idea is a good one and actually works better for external content than it does for that stored locally on the site at the moment imho.
There should be a smooth transition between learning materials, portfolios, productivity tools and live data which we’re getting there with.
Students should also have the option to export their data in a standard format or transfer an institution-owned account to a personal one further down the line.
Also depends on the student group you’re targeting as well, some will be glad of the independence to use their platform of choice whereas others might need tools provided to them.