virtual learning environment (VLE)

 

A virtual learning environment (VLE) is a Web-based platform for the digital aspects of courses of study, usually within educational institutions. VLEs typically: allow participants to be organized into cohorts, groups and roles; present resources, activities and interactions within a course structure; provide for the different stages of assessment; report on participation; and have some level of integration with other institutional systems.For those who edit them VLEs may have a de facto role as authoring and design environments.VLEs have been adopted by almost all higher education institutions in the anglosphere

The following are the basic or the main components required for a virtual learning environment or online education curriculum to take place.
A VLE may include some or all of the following elements:

• The course syllabus
• Administrative information about the course: prerequisites, credits, registration, payments, physical sessions, and contact information for the instructor.
• A notice board for current information about the ongoing course
• The basic content of some or all of the course; the complete course for distance learning applications, or some part of it, when used as a portion of a conventional course. This normally includes material such as copies of lecture in the form of text, audio, or video presentations, and the supporting visual presentations
• Additional resources, either integrated or as links to outside resources. This typically consists of supplementary reading, or innovative equivalents for it.
• Self-assessment quizzes or analogous devices, normally scored automatically
• Formal assessment functions, such as examinations, essay submission, or presentation of projects. this now frequently includes components to support peer assessment
• Support for communications, including e-mail, threaded discussions, chat rooms, Twitter and other media, sometimes with the instructor or an assistant acting as moderator. Additional elements include wikis, blogs, RSS and 3D virtual learning spaces.
• Links to outside sources – pathways to all other online learning spaces are linked via the VLE (Virtual Learning Environment).
• Management of access rights for instructors, their assistants, course support staff, and students
• Documentation and statistics as required for institutional administration and quality control
• Authoring tools for creating the necessary documents by the instructor, and, usually, submissions by the students
• Provision for the necessary hyperlinks to create a unified presentation to the students.

A VLE is normally not designed for a specific course or subject, but is capable of supporting multiple courses over the full range of the academic program, giving a consistent interface within the institution and—to some degree—with other institutions using the system. The virtual learning environment supports an exchange of information between a user and the learning institute he or she is currently enrolled in through digital mediums like e-mail, chat rooms, web 2.0 sites or a forum thereby helping convey information to any part of the world with just a single click.