Virtual Learning Environments In Higher Education Research Articles

The Impact of Virtual Learning Environments on the Digitalization of Higher Education in the Kurdistan Region-Iraq

Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) are open space that allows teachers and students to share resources and interact among learners. Implementing VLE such as Virtual/Augmented Reality and Online Laboratories in higher education systems are become positively valued in educational environments by providing huge applications and experimentations to science and engineering students for increasing their skills by conducting authentic investigations of the physical world through overlaying visual components over physical things and conducting real experiments via the Internet 24/7. Those innovations have enhanced students' enthusiasm and assisted them in developing more vita investigative abilities. Therefore, VLEs applications are becoming necessary to include in the higher education system in Kurdistan Region-Iraq now to allow educators and students and know more about the potential benefits of VLEs in higher education.
 For that, this paper shows the status of the Higher Education System and universities in Kurdistan Region-Iraq and how the widely modern technologies (e.g. Online Laboratories and VR/AR Technology) can impact educational approaches to enhance and modernize the quality of Higher Education in the Kurdistan Region-Iraq, digitalization Education system, and elements that can be impacted.

Evaluación y coevaluación de aprendizajes en blended learning en educación superior

El estudio evalúa la utilización de herramientas tecnológicas para implementar evaluación y coevaluación realizada por los estudiantes, en función del aprendizaje autónomo y la evaluación por parte del profesor, aprovechando el potencial de la retroalimentación instantánea de las herramientas que disponen los Ambientes Virtuales de Aprendizaje. La extensa implementación de estos ambientes virtuales en la educación superior hace que el blended learning sea una nueva normalidad, automatizando y facilitando el monitoreo de los avances en el aprendizaje, a través de la gestión pedagógica de prácticas efectivas. La propuesta de innovación propende al desarrollo de la autonomía y protagonismo de estudiantes en el logro de sus aprendizajes. El diseño metodológico es correlacional que busca establecer la asociación entre la confección de preguntas y resolución de test online por parte de los estudiantes y su nivel de desempeño en pruebas de conocimiento administradas por el profesor. Se aplicó en seis grupos de las cohortes 2016 y 2017 en la asignatura Investigación Educativa para carreras de pedagogías de una universidad chilena. Los principales resultados apuntan a una significativa correlación entre uso del ambiente virtual en la construcción y aplicación de instrumento tipo test y los resultados de desempeño en pruebas de conocimiento. Se concluye que el aprendizaje de los alumnos se potencia, al integrar la evaluación como parte del proceso formativo con un rol activo y autónomo de los estudiantes con apoyo de tecnologías.

Integrating a virtual learning environment into an introductory accounting course: determinants of student motivation

Technological change is altering the way educators deliver subject content. The phenomenal growth and widespread acceptance of the Internet has seen the creation of the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) in higher education. For the ease of integration of VLEs in higher education, software companies have provided products such as WebCT and Blackboard. From a pedagogical perspective, new technologies must be evaluated in an effort to establish whether their introduction has had a beneficial impact on learning outcomes. To this end, this investigation examines the attitudes of undergraduate accounting students in relation to a number of design features and attributes of WebCT (e.g. bulletin boards, on-line assessment and chat room) as a VLE. Responses from 292 on-campus undergraduate students provided data which associates four factors with improved student motivation. This study found that student satisfaction with the use of a VLE is significantly associated with the provision of: lecture notes, bulletin board, on-line assessment and other tools (chat and video summaries). The diagrammatic representation of the variables identified in this study provides a useful reference point for those educators contemplating the implementation of a VLE.