Chapter 2 - Challenges and Disappointments

Abstract

The previous chapter described the context in which the virtual learning environment (VLE) emerged and was implemented across higher education institutions (HEIs) from the mid-1990s to the late 1990s onwards. But what happened next? The lack of impact of the VLE on teaching and learning in HEIs was widely reported in the literature towards the end of the 2000s. In this chapter, the criticisms of the VLE will be explored. These will be shown to be consistent with a general trend towards disillusionment with the limited impact of new technologies on teaching and learning in higher education. It will be argued that there is a literature of disappointment surrounding online learning in higher education, and examples of this will be explored from the perspectives of expectations, methodologies and practices. The analysis of this literature leads into a discussion arguing that the approaches taken to evaluate the impact of online learning in higher education need realignment with the activities undertaken in campus-based institutions. Alternative approaches, particularly activity theory to support an activity-led approach to analysis, will be argued to have potential value here.