Introduction Of Virtual Learning Environments Research Articles

IMPLEMENTATION OF MODULE OBJECT-ORIENTED DYNAMIC EDUCATIONAL ENVIRONMENT MOODLE IN THE EDUCATIONAL PROCESS OF HIGH SCHOOL

The article reveals the importance of implementing the virtual learning environment Moodle in the educational process of future teachers of various disciplines on the example of Taras Shevchenko Regional Humanitarian-Pedagogical Academy оf Kremenets. The research is based on the analysis of the results of implementation of Moodle and outlines the benefits of learning with the use of resources of Moodle environment for students, teachers and institutions in general. The article substantiates the relevance of the outlined problem, its importance for students – future teachers and educated teachers. The algorithm for the introduction of virtual learning environment in the educational process at pedagogical universities is given.

The use of videoconferencing to support multimodal interaction in an online language classroom

AbstractThe introduction of virtual learning environments has made new tools available that have the potential to support learner communication and interaction, thus aiding second language acquisition both from a psycholinguistic and a sociocultural point of view. This article focuses on the use of videoconferencing in the context of a larger exploratory study to find out how interaction was influenced by the affordances of the environment. Taking a mainly qualitative approach, the authors analysed the written and spoken interaction in recorded videoconferencing sessions, alongside examining some quantitative data to reveal participation patterns. Exploring language learning interaction in a synchronous online medium allows us to show how this is a process mediated by interaction with experts and peers as well as by the artefacts used (e.g., technology) and how learners use and combine multiple modes to make meaning. Our findings illustrate how an online videoconferencing environment with its multiple modalities can be used in language teaching, how teachers and learners adapt to the multimodal online environment and how new patterns of communication emerge in the process.

A visualisation tool to aid exploration of students’ interactions in asynchronous online communication

Much research in recent years has focused on the introduction of virtual learning environments (VLEs) to universities, documenting practice, and sharing experience (Armitage, Browne, & Jenkins, 2001; Browne & Jenkins, 2003; Moron-Garcia, 2004; Weller, 2007). Attention has been directed towards the importance of online dialogue for learning as a defining feature of the VLE. Communicative tools are an important means by which VLEs have the potential to transform learning with computers from being passive and transmissive in nature, to being active and constructivist (Pavey & Garland, 2004). However, practical methods of reviewing and analysing online communication to trace cycles of real dialogue (and learning) have proved somewhat elusive. Qualitative methods are also under-used for VLE discussions, since they demand new sets of research skills for those unfamiliar with them, and can be time intensive. This paper describes a visualisation tool to aid the analysis of online communication. The tool has two purposes: first, it can be used on a day-to-day basis by teachers or forum moderators to review the development of a discussion and to support appropriate interventions. Second, the tool can support research activities since the visualisations generated provide the basis for further qualitative and quantitative analysis of online dialogue. The visualisation software is designed to encode interaction types simply and quickly. The software was tested and then used to analyse data from a sample of forums within the Moodle VLE. The paper discusses both the method of visualisation and analysis of the online interactions as a pilot for further research analysing interaction in discussion forums.

Virtual learning environments - help or hindrance for the 'disengaged' student?

The introduction of virtual learning environments (VLEs) has been regarded by some as a panacea for many of the problems in today’s mass numbers modular higher education system. This paper demonstrates that VLEs can help or hinder student engagement and performance, and that they should be adapted to the different types of learner. A project is described that aimed to investigate whether the introduction of a VLE can assist ‘disengaged’ students, drawing on click count tracking data and student performance. The project took place in the context of two very large undergraduate modules (850 and 567 students) in a Business School of a new university in the UK. In an adaptation of a model of learner engagement in Web-enhanced environments, four distinct learner types have emerged: model, traditionalist, geek and disengaged. There was evidence that use of the VLE exacerbated, rather than moderated, the differences between these learner types. Keywords: virtual learning environments; e-learning; self-efficacy DOI: 10.1080/09687760802657577

E-books and Virtual Learning Environments: Responses to a Transformational Technology

ABSTRACT The influx of Digital Natives into higher education, combined with the introduction of virtual learning environments as the primary means of interaction between students and universities, will have a transformational effect on learning and on library services. This article examines the e-book marketplace and the main UK responses to it (the Southern Universities Purchasing Consortium's tender and the JISC e-books observatory project). Within this context, the innovative measures already taken by Bournemouth University are discussed, as are plans to develop innovative pedagogic frameworks and an e-reading strategy through a Higher Education Academy–funded pathfinder project: Innovative E-Learning with E-Resources (eRes).

Virtual Groups in Learning Environments

This paper argues that whilst computer mediated conferencing and virtual learning environments facilitate collaborative and cooperative learning, the actions taken by non traditional undergraduate distance learning students may not reflect the intended learning outcomes of constructivist learning. The outcome of this research has implications for the anticipated change in demographics within Higher Education in the UK and the ramifications of the Leitch Report 2006. This paper will consider the behaviour of non traditional undergraduate students engaged in task based group work whilst studying wholly online in an open access learning environment. It examines the approaches taken to achieve the task based activities. The introduction of virtual learning environments into distance education has provided the opportunity to move away from the industrial model of self instructional materials and independent study (Garrison, 1997). The internet, information technology and computer mediated conferencing has enabled collaboration and cooperation learning not previously experienced in distance education. The social environment and connectivity affords the student the opportunity to develop deeper understanding through their own constructs in dialogue with peers and tutor, students therefore have the possibility of becoming more active learners which may lead to them engaging in “deep learning” (Entwistle, 1988). The use of asynchronous computer conferencing, in principle, provides a more equal opportunity for participation in group work as participants do not need to be present at the same time (Berge & Collins, 1995). However, constructivist learning and collaborative learning require active engagement rather then passive transmission, as Mason (1992) points out interaction is not the same as participation. This small, in depth, study is based on three cohorts of Open University foundation level students, forty four participants, studying in a wholly online learning environment. Course material was delivered through the web and supported primarily through FirstClass conferencing facilities, with telephone support when appropriate. The students were aged between eighteen to post retirement, with a wide range of prior educational attainment, from no post compulsory educational qualifications to second degrees. The students engaged in a series of small, task based, group work activities throughout the duration of the eight month course. Group work was assessed through their reflection on their contribution to the activity and application of netiquette; the task output is not assessed. Findings are based on the authentic student voice, through the use of computer mediated transcripts within the online environment, student reflections and post course interviews. Participation in collaborative and cooperative learning were key elements of the course, this offers the potential to foster a culture of positive goal or reward interdependence (McConnell, 2000). It is acknowledged, however, that the loss of this independence, in respect of pace and flexibility, when students engage in collaborative distance learning is one of "the most serious disadvantages" Weller (2002, p70). The paper argues that the participants on this course approached their study from an adult learning perspective, goal, activity or learning orientated, rather than from a collaborative and constructivist learning approach. For many students their prior learning experience had been tutor/teacher led, through didactic or transmission mode. Students were, therefore, not only encountering a new pedagogical approach to learning, though constructivism, but also studying within a post modern learning environment.

‘Nine O’clock and All’s Well’, or ‘Fire, Fire, The Library’s Burning’: The Future of the Academic Library

These three books have 'information' and 'universities' at their core, but their approaches are in stark contrast. For Breivik and Gee, the significance of libraries is a given, and universities are places with an assured future. The one cannot be conceived without the other. The library is all things a treasure for the community, a learning resource, an enabler of research, and a repository of institutional records. Given its importance, the library must be protected, encouraged, and developed as 'mission critical'. That taken as read, Breivik and Gee offer much advice as to how this might be done, with chapters on 'reforming instruction', 'improving research productivity', 'supporting administrative priorities', and 'leadership'. Their book, which is an update of a volume published in 1989, seems to have been written before the widespread introduction of virtual learning environments (VLEs), or the explosion in digital information assets, as there is no mention of the impact that these have had on the academy or the library. Instead, Breivik and Gee concentrate on what they more traditionally term 'information literacy' and enjoin us heroically to agree that 'learning resources programs that provide information literary

Links between the use of virtual learning environment and informatics curriculum in Lithuanian Lower Secondary School

The paper analyses conceptual relations between the aims of the introduction of Virtual Learning Environments (VLE) and the informatics curriculum in the lower secondary school of Lithuania. The article investigates this issue from two opposite perspectives. First, it looks, how the VLE could help to attain the objectives of informatics curriculum. Second, it discusses, what skills and knowledge of students should be developed during the lessons of informatics in order to use VLE efficiently for different other teaching and learning objectives.

Virtual Learning Environments in Business and Management: A Review of Some Recent Developments

This paper examines the use of Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) in business and management higher education within the UK. Using information from interviews with staff in 10 UK Business Schools and 4 private sector publishers it is argued that the predictions of the most ardent advocates and critics of VLEs are some way from being realised. More specifically it is suggested that these technologies have not yet produced an influx of private sector providers into the market for business and management higher education, nor have they formed a significant component of the international activities of UK based business schools. Where VLEs have been introduced their use has been championed by enthusiastic lecturers and supportive heads of department, rather than imposed by senior managers keen to commodify the work of their staff. There is some evidence of e-learning programmes being launched to exploit what are seen to be new markets for online education, but to date these have generally been small initiatives with limited impact. The biggest area of change has been in the adoption of these new technologies to support mainstream undergraduate and postgraduate teaching. Here the introduction of VLEs has been fuelled by student support and accepted by staff although these developments are expensive, not least for students, and the effect on learning remains difficult to assess.