Virtual Learning Environment - Essay Example

Virtual learning environment Name Institution Virtual learning environment Introduction Virtual learning environment (Virtual Learning Environments) gained popularity much later after the development of the internet in the early 1990s. The internet has really supported learning and teaching activities with the use of education community software. As referred by the joint information systems committee under learning environment steering group, virtual learning environment “is a leaning environment whereby learners and tutors can interact online, on educational basis such as online learning” . The internet has brought out a wide platform where students and lecturers can flexibly interact and communicate and at the same time, the lecturers can use the same platform to create internet resources that are appealing, stimulating, educational and easy to use. In the coming decades, every academic discipline will be forced to respond to the quest of them becoming more sustainable because, as time elapses students will be living in a world challenged by competition for resources, climate change and hence, will require that most disciplines show how much they are relevant and useful to the society and the changes that arises over the years. To make education suitable for the future life there is need to have Education for sustainability which scholars refers to as a way in which the capacity of the community can be built so as to enable them to make critical decision based not only on the economic grounds but also on environmental and social outcomes . The world needs to make education sustainable so as to retain its competitiveness in this competitive world with limited resources. Education for sustainability can therefore, be referred to as a lifelong learning process that results to an informed and involuntary citizens having some skills which can assist them to solve problems, scientific and social literacy and be fully dedicated to engage in responsible individual and cooperative actions. The actions will be suited to bring out an environmentally sound and a very economically successful future. Many educators are slowly streamlining their curriculum to enable the education world to achieve the sustainability it deserves. This has been done by teaching “e’s” which are economics, environment and equity not forgetting the three “r’s” which are also reading, arithmetic and writing . This effort fosters the understanding and awareness of the institutions, government and communities and therefore, education for sustainability has been an important tool which can be used to build stronger bridges between the classroom and business and between schools and communities. In the Agenda 21 of the UN conference in 1992 on Environment and Development, the issues given the topmost priority in their discussion were matters concerning education, which was termed as very critical for promotion of sustainability in development. For countries all over the world to experience a steady development, there is need to have a stable education system which would enable the entire population to acquire the most basic education. For there to be education for sustainability it will incorporate all disciplines in the education sector such as adult education, formal education, on-the-job training, informal training and the mass media. As stated in the Agenda 21, the world needs to educate its entire inhabitants indiscriminately and not to concentrate on the children as it was normally done. According to the conference held by the National Forum on Partnerships Supporting Education about the Environment in 1994, various groups such as the nongovernmental organization, individuals in the business sector and government, and the educational community, were therefore encouraged to indulge in activities that promote education for sustainability. Scholars have analyzed the key aspects of education for sustainability and they have found out that since it is a continuous process, for it to be successful it has to be dependent on six core themes which are lifelong learning, system of thinking, interdisciplinary approaches, partnership, empowerment and multicultural perspectives . Lifelong has been used to imply to the collaboration between all forms of education, be it informal or formal and that it should be a continuous process. Education for sustainability also requires an understanding between the human and the environment in their interdependence and interconnection forms. Some of the elements featured here include biological, knowledge of global socio-geopolitical, human socio-economic systems and physical science. For instance, education for sustainability will prepare policymakers for merging economics and the natural science with other disciplines when developing environmental policies. Education for sustainability should also be in a manner where the interdisciplinary approaches are use, these approaches will be locally generated, both the resources used and what is used will be the concern of the local community, regions or respective stakeholders. In addition, for sustainability to be achieved, there is need for people to be familiar with all the diverse culture existing. Education for sustainability will assist in linking disciplines together which will imply that the teaching will go beyond the normal school to also involve the business and specific individuals with specialized expertise. The sustainability for education should be integrated into the formal education system so as to ensure that there is utmost interconnection between the economy, environment, social structures to be availed to the kindergarten, to elementary through to secondary, college, universities and the professional levels as a whole. In addition there should also be incorporation of the pre-service and the in-service professional trainings to facilitate sustainability in education . Virtual learning environments should be incorporated in all the institutions to meet the demand for the population that should be taught to enhance sustainability. With the increased use of the internet, it has led to enhancement of prospects of the people a “global educational marketplace”. Various work institutions are encouraging their employees to seek mass education, hence leading to the large number of people seeking higher education to enable them to have lifelong skills which will be, sufficient for them to be more productive for economic progress. This has driven the formation of Virtual Learning Environments. There has been more effort to introduce Virtual Learning Environments in institutions, in the US, alone. In 2006, the 38 states in the United States have managed to establish both state-led online learning programs and policies regulating online learning. In addition, 25 states have established state led online learning program, and 18 more are a home to 147 virtual charter schools serving a student population of over 65,000 students. In 2001, 56% of the traditional learning institutions offered distance learning programs, in addition 12% of the, schools had plans to add distance learning into their program within the next three years (national center for education statistics, 2003). Therefore with this rapid improvement in the learning patterns both in secondary and post-secondary education, the teachers involved will have to seek new training to enable them to easily facilitate this distance learning program. Online instructors should also be increased tremendously since more universities are also engaging in online learning practices . A case study conducted in two schools on the Far North Queensland, Australia to examine the barriers to implementing sustainable school-based sustainability. Some of the barriers found out after interviewing the key staffs and the principle at both schools, it came out that lack of direct funding for innovation from the government, lack of enough time, teacher conceptual understanding, presence of resistance from some staff members towards sustainable education and lastly, the fact that it has been positioned as a ‘greenie’ brings out the barriers to effective practice . Features that the Virtual Learning Environments should have Virtual Learning Environments has various features and tools which can be used such as; it offers communication between the tutors and the student. The students can use e-mail, virtual chat facilities and discussion boards to create that platform for communication. This type of interaction can facilitate the following channels of communication such as; one to one, many to many, one to many, and synchronous and asynchronous communication channels . Virtual Learning Environments also offers both self and summative assessment. Through the Virtual Learning Environments, students can access multiple choice assessments which come with automated marking so that learners can get immediate feedback. In addition, Virtual Learning Environments gives the learners opportunity acquires leaning materials and resources. The lectures can use this medium to provide their lecture notes, video clips, and images, facilitate online discussion, pose other related online links and avail assessment activities for the learners. Another Virtual Learning Environments’ feature is that, it enables easy sharing of work group areas. This is where students can share some of their academic assignment and files and assist in the communication process among them. The students can also be supported by tutors and their fellow students through exchange of supportive material such as frequently asked questions (FAQs) and course information . Virtual Learning Environments s allows students to manage and track students, through the use of passwords and username to allow only registered students to access the course. It also has various student tools such as drop boxes in case they want to upload their assignment, electronic diaries, calendars and webpages owned by individual students. On the other hand, Virtual Learning Environments gives users a customizable and consistent look and feel; this is a standard user friendly interface for students . The students can customize their interface to suit their taste such as graphics, logos and colors but the essential modes remains the same. Lastly, the Virtual Learning Environments has a standard navigation structure which makes it flexible and easy to navigate through. The Virtual Learning Environments software enables students to work their way through linear sequent of instructional material. People all over the world are seeking more knowledge due to the high competition in the professional world. This has led to increased number of students seeking education hence large classes, increased diversity of students and fewer resources available to facilitate their learning (Reynolds, 2000). Virtual Learning Environments has made it more economical for all these students to be reached. Virtual Learning Environments has provided a way in which oversees students can be assessed. Mature students are also given the chance to further their education through part time education and vocational training . Virtual Learning Environments has assisted students from different backgrounds, preference and skills set to learn in their own unique way. Additionally, the students are given the opportunity to embrace the use of new technologies in their studies; this is mostly seen for part-time students who have the advantage of accessing more flexible resources and material which are used to facilitate their learning away from the institution’s premises. Evaluation of Virtual Learning Environments as it improves Education for Sustainability Though there was a believed that Virtual Learning Environment was to assist in achieving Education for sustainability, a survey carried 2007; it was found that the introduction of Virtual Learning Environments s in schools did not have much impact. This is shown by the results of the 34 sample schools where the survey was carried out. The school inspection report showed that slightly above half of the schools had positive responses about the introduction of Virtual Learning Environments into the schools. While, the other remaining schools were more cautious and pointed out that the Virtual Learning Environments being introduced were still in their developing stages and that they did not provide much help in facilitation of learning experiences to the students. At the same time, comments from the inspection report still did not provide major evidences of success of the Virtual Learning Environments in their respective schools. This is shown by the survey done on colleges simultaneously as the schools where it was shown that out of the 281 colleges inspected, only 58 had mentioned in their reports that they were slightly helping in some parts of their curriculum not all. To have a clear picture of the progress Virtual Learning Environments has on education, it was also found that out of the 262 adult learning providers inspected, only 22 had positive results, this shows how much development is needed for Virtual Learning Environments to be more effective and efficient to the learners . The concept of virtual learning environment is yet to undergo transformation in the future. The current technologies used have been undergoing transformation at a very fast rate in the recent few years, and this has increased the chances of existence of a 3D virtual classroom learning environment . Though this new innovation is highly encouraged, the concern being put forward is whether these innovations will improve the workload of the teachers or not and what effect will it have to the student as far as learning is concerned? A good example of how students of paisley university have embraced the idea of virtual learning and the perception they have about it. The students have developed a positive attitude towards Virtual Learning Environments which originate from different factors. These factors include; enhancement, ease of use, technical support, flexibility, usefulness, teacher effectiveness, motivation, and age and gender. Paisley university students mentioned that Virtual Learning Environments allows them to engage actively with the online materials, this makes them to have enhanced capability of understanding concepts taught to them for sustainability purposes. Through the scenarios and authentic situations, the student’s motivation is enhanced, and this therefore, encourages him/her to learn and at the same time improving his/her thinking capabilities . In addition, the available real life experiences given to them to facilitate their learning makes them analyze the problem practically thus building their knowledge. Paisley university students also associated Virtual Learning Environments with it being easy to use. More student were found to rush towards enrolling in some of these Virtual Learning Environments programs only because they thought that they are easy and manageable, as it is also the human culture to go for activities or work which can be easily executable . The students’ perception on engaging in Virtual Learning Environments s was also influenced by the availability of technical support. Most of them said that sometimes they are faced with several challenges, which range from, communication failures to incompatible Softwares. Such technical problem sometimes frustrates them to the extent that they become discouraged to engage in Virtual Learning Environments at a later time in their study life. Nowadays Virtual Learning Environments s have been integrated in the mobile system to optimizes and enhance learning by utilizing the already existing information system and delivering them in a more contextual manner. Since there are millions of mobile users’ worldwide, travelers are able to use some of the applications availed for them to assist them in teaching and learning strategies. Students are able to access information and learning material within their reach by the use of their phones. Such contemporary learning environments are imperative to the successful uptake and adoption of mobile learning. This technology also comes with various setbacks such as inaccessibility especially in areas with limited network access. Advantages of VLE One of the advantages is that Virtual Learning Environments provides a platform for easy delivery of learning material via online to students and among students. It is also known to promote communication between students and that between students and their lecturers. Virtual Learning Environments gives the students a chance to easily publish an already existing document or presentation; it also helps the student to link with other online resources such as simulations and tutorials and online data sources, publications, news services and records. Another advantage that makes Virtual Learning Environments is highly appreciated and accepted by both the lecturers and students are that it can be easily used since it has user friendly software . Since most of the materials are availed online, students have the privilege of accessing any of the material they need anywhere and at their convenience. When it comes to its economic potentials, Virtual Learning Environments can be really economical since it can allow or accept many students to use at their convenience it without the need of having more space and resources to facilitate the learning . Most importantly, Virtual Learning Environments offers new approaches to teaching and learning because the students can use the same learning environment to complete projects which needs them to work together yet they are actually far away and can indeed be of great use to students who specifically learn independently in solving problems, studying ideas learned. Disadvantages of VLE One of the challenges seen with the use of Virtual Learning Environments is that it does not give room for motivation of the student since there is no actual contact between the learner and the lecturer. On the other hand, Virtual Learning Environments also can form a dumping site for material which is not supposed to be delivered online therefore, making such materials irrelevant to the students. Another disadvantage noticed is that, even if the materials are availed to the students online, without linking them face to face with the lecturer might lead to some of the information being wrongly misinterpreted hence not serving the intended purpose. Internet materials are very sensitive with copyright materials, therefore, without proper permission, some materials may not be easily accessible or may lead to legal issues if their use is unauthorized. Since the Virtual Learning Environments software is still at its initial stage of development, it might create frustration especially when integrating or presenting of some of the materials. At the same time, the standards used to move or take contents from one Virtual Learning Environments to another is still at its tender stages, therefore, there might be limitations on transfer of materials or contents. Another common disadvantage is seen in countries with poor communication infrastructure or where the communication networks are still expensive to access and utilize, since off, and on-campus students fail to access this essential learning environment because they lack the internet facilities, therefore, decreasing the number of students expected to be served with this learning environment. Levels of Virtual Learning Environments use The three models of Virtual Learning Environments use were identified by a scholar by the name mason (1998). He came up with the following models; content and support model, wrap-around model, and integrated model. Content and support model is where all the prepared content is availed online mode or printed, and the overall support is provided online. Here the content and support are not linked or joined together, the online support part of it is done separately and cannot be considered to be part of the learning activities. This model has been found to be easily established but does not fully support the exploitation of online learning experience . The wrap-around model is represented by a combination of online learning activities and prepared contents. This leaning activities presented here can include the likes of online discussion groups and maybe collaborative meetings . On the other hand, the integrated model consist of a place where the most learning takes place since it uses a collaboration approach between the learners either as an individual or a group and the online activities. In this case, the learning becomes more collaborative and student centered. Conclusion In conclusion, Virtual Learning Environments (Virtual Learning Environments s) such as WebCT, blackboard and Moodle, support blended learning and allow teachers, for example, to: deliver course material embedding audios, videos, animations and simulations to it; deliver online computer-marked assessment supported by feedback and check students assignments for plagiarism; interact through collaboration (synchronous or asynchronous) with their students; provide information on selective portions of course materials; track the number of students viewing a course; and/or get useful statistical analysis from the students’ participation in the online course . However, the transition from traditional teaching to ICT-enhanced environments is not obvious and many teachers are still reluctant or hesitant to engage in the use of technology for teaching tasks. The factors that discourage staff to take up and use Virtual Learning Environments s are: staff workloads; their familiarity with the use of ICT; the limitations of technology in relation to particular tasks; electronic medium communication vs. Face-to-face; the design of high quality material; the lack of training and lack of a reliable infrastructure . All the above factors act as a barrier to the effective use of Virtual Learning Environments s and, to overcome these difficulties, teachers need assistance and time to create a pedagogically worthwhile online course . References ABBAD, M. M. & ALBARGHOUTHI, M. 2011. Evaluate Students' Perceptions of the Virtual Learning Environment at Paisley University. International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning, 6, 28-34. AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE ENVIRONMENT, W., HERITAGE, ARTS, T., SUSTAINABILITY, A. R. I. I. E. F. & UNIVERSITY, M. 2009. 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