Types Of Virtual Learning Envoironments

There are a number of established companies and brands producing VLE systems with products continually emerging alongside present learning technology. WebCT and Blackboard, in particular, have established their selves as leaders in the market, especially in developing systems for the UK higher education sector.

Examples of other major commercial products include Granadas LearnWise, FD Learnings Learning Environment and TekniCAL.coms Virtual Campus. VLEs have also started to be developed by Higher Education institutions, these include CoSE (originally developed at the University of Staffordshire and now being marketed by Cambridge Scientific Publications), Colloquia (University of Wales Bangor) and Prometheus (developed by the George Washington University in the US). Most of these products contain similar features.

VLEs should be considered in the context of other types of related products. Content management systems, VLEs and MLEs generally all offer varying degrees of functionality:

Content Management System (CMS):

A content management system stores, loads and replays content. It may also enable teachers to organise and sequence this content for delivery to students. Such systems might have the facility to communicate these sequences to other teachers, allowing lesson structures to be used by more than one person. Content management systems do not keep track of students progress. Ideally, a CMS should allow users to import content from a range of different sources.

Virtual Learning Environment (VLE):

A virtual learning environment performs the functions of a CMS but also keeps track of students progress as they work through the learning resources it stores. A VLE can be considered part of a managed learning environment MLE if the data it records on students progress are passed to the college or school management information system (MIS).

Managed Learning Environment (MLE):

A managed learning environment includes the whole range of an institutions information/content systems and processes, including its MIS and its VLE if it has one) that contribute directly or indirectly to learning and the management of learning.