Virtual Learning Environments: Benefits and Potentials to Support Social Constructivist Pedagogies
Eugenijus.Kurilovas@itc.smm.lt
Abstract. Currently virtual learning environments (VLEs) and learning objects (LOs) repositories are under active implementation into general education and vocational training systems in Europe and Lithuania. The article aims to review and analyse different theories and studies on pedagogical aspects of VLEs and LOs implementation to support active socio-constructivist pedagogies as well as current Lithuanian experience in the field.
Keywords: virtual learning environments, learning objects, active socio-constructivist pedagogies, innovations, pedagogical evaluation
1 The Aims of Using VLEs
Today an increasing interest for so-called “active” and “rich” pedagogies that originate in various socio-constructivist schools of thought exists. There are multiple reasons for this. So called “traditional” pedagogies are very efficient for “knowledge transmission”, but often lead to isolated and superficial knowledge which is difficult to integrate and to apply. In the modern changing world there is an increasing need that students become better general problem solvers and better group workers. Finally, there is a pressure to make learning more fun in order to spark both students individual interest. In the heart of a rich, active and open pedagogical scenario are student activities mediated through products. In more simple terms: students have to create something [2]. In analogy to research projects we seek knowledge gain through the medium of artefacts like written text. The reason that Dewey, Papert, and others have advocated learning from projects rather than from isolated problems is, in part, so that students can face the task of formulating their own problems, guided on the one hand by general goals they set, and on the other hand by the ‘interesting’ phenomena and difficulties they discover through their interaction with the environment [7].
Powerful learning environments that aim at the development of general problem skills, deeper conceptual understanding and more applicable knowledge include, according to Merriënboer and Pass [6], the following characteristics: “(1) the use of complex, realistic and challenging problems that elicit in learners active and constructive processes of knowledge and skill acquisition; (2) the inclusion of small group, collaborative work and ample opportunities for interaction, communication and co-operation; and (3) the encouragement of learners to set their own goals and provision of guidance for students in taking more responsibility for their own learning activities and processes”.
Modern and active pedagogies are more successful if the teacher can profit creatively from information and communication technology (ICT), according to his and his student’s needs. There are different kinds of ICT tools and systems to support various pedagogies – so-called e-Learning platforms, Virtual Learning Environments, Learning Management Systems (LMS), Content Management Systems, etc.
The term Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) is used here as ‘a single piece of software, accessed via standard Web browser, which provides and integrated online learning environment’. VLEs usually include the following functions: (1) controlled access; (2) student tracking; (3) resources and materials; (4) communications; (5) links; (6) customisation [10].
The term Learning Object (LO) is used here as ‘any digital resource that can be reused to support learning’ [11].
ICT have support potential for most of the functions provided by an educational system. Several pedagogical-technical models are currently available and sometimes in competition [2].
Conclusion 1: There are different kinds of ICT tools and systems to support various pedagogies.
2 ICT Development in Education: a Continuum of Approaches
Studies of ICT development in both developed and developing countries identify at least four broad approaches, termed emerging, applying, infusing, and transforming, through which educational systems and individual schools proceed in their adoption and use of ICT [1].
The emerging approach: Schools at the beginning stages of ICT development demonstrate the emerging approach. Such schools begin to purchase, or have had donated, some computing equipment and software. In this initial phase, administrators and teachers are just starting to explore the possibilities and consequences of using ICT for school management and adding ICT to the curriculum. Schools at this emerging phase are still firmly grounded in traditional, teacher-centred practice. The curriculum reflects an increase in basic skills but there is an awareness of the uses of ICT. This curriculum assists movement to the next approach if so desired.
The applying approach: Those schools in which a new understanding of the contribution of ICT to learning has developed exemplify the applying approach. In this secondary phase, administrators and teachers use ICT for tasks already carried out in school management and in the curriculum. Teachers largely dominate the learning environment. Schools at the applying approach phase adapt the curriculum in order to increase the use of ICT in various subject areas with specific tools and software. This curriculum assists movement to the next approach if so desired.
The infusing approach: The infusing approach involves integrating or embedding ICT across the curriculum, and is seen in those schools that now employ a range of computer-based technologies in laboratories, classrooms, and administrative offices. Teachers explore new ways in which ICT changes their personal productivity and professional practice. The curriculum begins to merge subject areas to reflect real-world applications.
The transforming approach: Schools that use ICT to rethink and renew school organization in creative ways are at the transforming approach. ICT becomes an integral though invisible part of daily personal productivity and professional practice. The focus of the curriculum is now learner-centred and integrates subject areas in real-world applications. ICT is taught as a separate subject at the professional level and is incorporated into all vocational areas. Schools have become centres of learning for their communities. Assessment is continuous, holistic, learner-centred, and project-based.
Conclusion 2: Wide implementation of VLEs and LOs has the great potential to support active collaborative learner-centred pedagogies. VLEs could show their full pedagogical potential in schools/colleges which are already at the infusing and transforming approaches of ICT development. The main preconditions for this are: (1) the focus of the curriculum is learner-centred and integrates subject areas in real-world applications, and (2) more formative assessment schemes prevail.
3 Analysis of Innovations in ICT for Learning
The benefits and added value of ICT-rich pedagogy (VLEs and LOs for learning) using collected case studies were formulated by European Education Partnership [3]:
Improve access to resources: Giving better access to, and hence better use of learning resources – by both teachers and learners. It also includes enabling much better re-usability of resources.
VLEs services: enable access from homes; access to a much wider range of resources; access higher quality resources; link access of resources to the structure of the learning; manage availability of content to suite learners and groups.
LOs: enable shared and managed access in school/college; making resources re-usable and easier to find.
Extend learning time: Enabling more learning, by extending learning time through anywhere, anytime learning.
VLEs services: provide structure and resources for students learning at home; enable access to learning from elsewhere in the city/region; give access to structured learning unavailable in the school/college; provide greater structure to out of class learning; help students realise the benefits of extended learning time.
LOs: enable learning at non-class times; create e-learning objects to suit the students.
Increase communication: Making possible greatly increased communication between learners and others who can help them, including their colleagues and all sorts of adults. ICT also allows this communication to be better tailored to the individual's learning style.
VLEs services: enable community groups to support learning; enable easier student-student and teacher-teacher communication; provide communications tools structured into the learning system.
Access for minorities: Access to learning, comparable to that which the majority have, can now be given to those with minority languages, disabilities or different preferred learning styles. This aspect can also include giving access to complex areas of study for those ‘in the minority’ because they are new to the area of study and do not understand some things that the majority of the group assume everyone knows. As knowledge grows and it can no longer be assumed that all people have followed the same curriculum and have the same knowledge, this aspect will become increasingly important.
VLEs services: make minority content accessible from students’ homes; enable city/region-wide sharing of minority content; enable access to online courses from outside the school/college.
LOs: provide content to serve minority approaches to learning; bring images and sound to aid understanding; make minority content accessible throughout the school/college; make learning resources for minorities accessible online; provide software with features to aid minorities.
‘Brain-centred’ learning: There is a powerful impact on learning from the ability to do "what if" investigations, through simulations and other software. This relates also to learners being able to "play" with ideas and systems. Precisely how such capabilities relate to learners learning better is currently poorly understood, at least outside the research community. Also in this area of added-value, feedback and responses to learners can be better matched to the mental needs and pace of learners and systems can be tuned to respond to the way individuals think and can be predictive.
VLEs services: enable learners to take routes in learning to suit their needs.
LOs: develop approaches exploiting understanding of mental processes; provide resources to suit the different intelligences of students; enable students to take the approach which best suits them.
Publishing and audience: There can be dramatically increased opportunities for learners to produce and publish their work so that others can respond and comment, and this can be done to hugely increased audiences, including key reference people such as family and friends, and to peers in other countries and cultures.
VLEs services: publish to the school’s constituency; publish to the whole school; publish to the whole city/region.
Use more information channels: More channels of communication with the brain can be used, simultaneously, including aural, visual, graphical, textual, musical, spatial and even tactile. It is already known that communicating with learners on several channels can enable information transmission to be very much more effective and can make errors in receiving and understanding communications much more apparent to learners.
LOs: enable access to information the way the student needs it; provide content to suit many learning styles; use content which communicates through multiple channels; build the use of multiple channels into online-accessible learning; provide software which uses images and sound equally with text.
Increase motivation: Motivation to learn is increased and attitudes of students towards learning are improved, which leads students to make much more use of opportunities to learn. This also improves the behaviour of groups of immature learners, enabling teachers to educate more effectively.
VLEs services: increase peer incentive to be involved in learning; make accessible to students the learning that they want; make the structure of learning more visible and learner-controllable; make the structure and progress of learning more visible to students.
LOs: increase success in learning for different learning styles; communicate better to the 80% who prefer multimedia to text; allow students to select their own approach & work at their own pace.
Rebalance teaching and learning: ICT enables changes in the balance between autonomous (independent) learning and teacher-mediated learning. This can make more effective use of teacher time and allow more high quality interactions. By this we include the fact that teachers spending less time interacting with students, but in small groups and individually, can be more valuable for the learners than teachers spending all the available time interacting with whole classes. This can also occur in whole-class teaching, with students working more independently, enabling teachers to make fewer but higher quality interactions with individual students. And of course it can also mean students who have become mature learners able to learn independently for much of the time, drawing on their teachers' time as and when needed.
VLEs services: improve and increase learning at home; enable students to access learning from other schools/colleges; enable students to access courses not available locally; help to structure learning and free-up teachers for mentoring; generate the information needed to manage this essential change.
LOs: increase the amount of autonomous learning; make learning opportunities more accessible in non-class time; create e-learning objects that complement teachers' work; enable more autonomous learning.
Scaleability and replicability: Much more of the teaching and learning approach can now be made scaleable – practically and economically and particularly for older students. There can also be greater consistency of aspects such as presentation of information and ideas, structuring and recording of work, and provision of access to resources.
VLEs services: ensure students at home or in hospital can access resources; manage access to learning resources on a city/region-wide basis; reduce the impact of teacher shortages; increase the scaleability of access to courses; ensure appropriate learning structures and resources are used.
LOs: link resources to courses and manage use of resources; generate local capability to use ICT capabilities to the full; access to learning for students reviewing topics or missing classes.
Management and recording: Management and recording of learning tracks, learning processes, and outcomes can be done much more effectively. This provides much greater comfort for teachers and learners that useful outcomes have been achieved and can be assessed. This also aids reflection and formative assessment discussions.
VLEs services: manage online access and provision at city/region-level; generate information on more of students’ learning; base management of learning on a broader information base.
LOs: relate learning to accessible resources.
Conclusion 3: There are a great number of benefits which VLEs and LOs could provide to innovative learner-centred pedagogies.
4 European Schoolnet Survey: VLEs Pedagogical Potentials
The use of VLEs in the school setting has different functions and needs. In some cases, VLEs in school settings are also used to deliver courses to remote locations where the offer of courses doesn’t meet the demand. A more prominent usage of VLEs, though, is the use for collaborative learning exercises, project or problem based learning, building knowledge and networking with external communities, hence the need for a VLE application that supports exactly these needs [9].
EUN survey outcomes: VLE’s pedagogical potentials. Both in the surveys for teachers and national agencies, the desired outcomes for VLE use in schools were set high. The highest appeal seemed to be as facilitator of change in pedagogy towards a more learner-focused paradigm.
The demand for a facilitator of pedagogical change could be seen as a long-term goal to reach in VLE use. This kind of outcome is impossible to evaluate from replies to a questionnaire like the one used for this survey. What can be stated, though, is the nature of functionalities that teachers use VLEs, although this doesn’t necessarily give any indication of the underlying pedagogical practices that take place in teachers’ everyday activities.
The practices for which VLEs were used according to this European survey don’t necessary support the learner-centred view. Tasks that teachers perform through VLEs seemed to be more focused on the communication between participants, as well as features like assigning tasks to students, file share, file upload area, link lists and lists of students’ homepages. It can be estimated that teachers use VLEs just as digital distribution place of tasks and school assignments, and not for activities to support learners’ knowledge building and acquisition of new cognitive skills.
To answer to the question why VLEs are used in such a traditional way, there may be two possible answers, firstly teachers are only slowly learning how to use VLEs with students in a more constructive way. The other possible answer is that VLEs in their current form hardly support the desired change in the learning and teaching paradigm. If VLEs are mostly designed for course delivery in higher education, one could argue that it is easier for a teacher to practice “traditional” teaching with VLEs than try new ways for collaborative exercises that support learner-centred pedagogy, since tools for this don’t necessary exist.
VLEs supporting change (e.g. integrating a holistic curriculum and re-engineering learning). There are many expectations for VLEs, one of them is as being the facilitator of pedagogical changes supporting learner centred pedagogical approaches. VLEs can potentially contribute to the acquisition of new skills that tomorrow’s learners need in order to survive in the knowledge society where new type of talents are valued, but so can many other activities that take place in schools and classrooms. Is there anything that makes VLEs special?
VLEs being in their early stage, it can be questioned if they really support any change in the pedagogy. First of all, many teachers seem to lack ideas and tools to really make the change happen in their teaching. Secondly, the most used VLE features mentioned in the survey (file upload, assign tasks….) let us predict that teachers actually still use VLEs in a very traditional way to support a traditional way of teaching. Thirdly, many of the VLEs haven’t been designed to actually support the change in learning process; they are not designed to support students’ knowledge building, but just to deliver distance courses at the university level or at the corporate training. It should be seriously questioned whether many of the currently used VLEs are able to be the facilitator of the desired change in teaching and learning.
When 24/7 access to learning is implied, there is also need for 24/7 assistance. Can learners count on getting help just at the crucial moment when they need it? Are the tools designed convenient enough for learners? Another question is if teachers want to be available 24/7.
If teachers are not trained to use VLEs as organisational tools for their professional needs, nor for using VLEs in a constructive way to support the acquisition of learners’ new cognitive skills, VLEs will remain as just one tool among other tool that have been introduced to classes with a lot of fuss and enthusiasm, but without any further thinking of underlying concepts. There will always be teachers who find VLEs fascinating and who can find good ways to use them, but for a bigger break-through some re-organising of the whole school setting is needed, along with supportive political actions ranging from infrastructure to teacher training and giving teacher proper tools to work.
Conclusion 4: The potential of VLEs is still not fully used because of the lack of appropriate teacher training and the ability of existing VLEs to support socio-constructivist pedagogies. The main reason for this – ICT development stage in majority of schools in Europe is still applying.
5 Framework for Pedagogical Evaluation of VLEs
VLEs are NOT neutral in their impact on course design. Course design will involve moving from ‘content centred’ to a ‘learner centred’ system. Course material in content centred systems is aggregated into ‘courses’ to which learners are assigned, coupling the learner closely to the content. Learner centred systems organise students into groups (courses or smaller groups). Content exists independently and can be made available in a flexible and dynamic way to support individual learners and activities. It is therefore extremely important to ensure that any content can be easily decoupled from a VLE; include this criterion in any assessment of VLEs prior to purchasing [8].
The well-known framework for pedagogical evaluation of VLEs was developed by Britain and Liber in 1999 and revised in 2004 [2]. The Framework aims to help readers to analyse e-Learning tools without being distracted by the details of user interface objects and components. The Framework provides a means by which reflection on aspects of pedagogical process can be structured, and then how e-Learning systems encourage or discourage these can be evaluated.
Education providers using VLEs and other ICT tools for e-Learning have two primary aims:
- To enhance the quality of teaching and learning by allowing teachers to use pedagogies that are not possible with large numbers in a face to face environment.
- To manage the delivery and administration of programmes of learning through an electronic (on-line) medium. This includes management of groups of students.
The first of these is a more difficult problem, but (perhaps as a consequence of this) much more effort so far has been put into the second.
The Framework suggests that these two aims are intrinsically linked and that how a particular VLE is designed and constructed for the purposes of management can have a profound impact on how likely it is to constrain or facilitate the use of alternative pedagogies.
Several typical proprietary (WebCT Vista, Blackboard Academic Suite, Granada Learnwise version 3, FirstClass) and Open Source (LAMS, COSE, Moodle) VLEs were properly evaluated in the article against well-developed pedagogical criteria. Among them VLE Moodle seems to be most suitable to support social constructivist pedagogies on the module level [4].
Conclusion 5: VLEs are NOT neutral in their impact on pedagogies. We could divide VLEs to more ‘content centred’ and more ‘learner centred’ systems. Course design will involve moving from ‘content centred’ to a ‘learner centred’ system. Course material in content centred systems is aggregated into ‘courses’ to which learners are assigned, coupling the learner closely to the content. Learner centred systems organise students into groups (courses or smaller groups).
6 Implementation of VLEs in Education in Lithuania
VLEs in Lithuania have been used primarily for distance learning in universities, but currently they are being used increasingly as a supplement to traditional classroom based teaching [4]. Educational institutions seek ways to use VLEs to make teaching more effective on campus as well, e.g. in general education and vocational training systems. The Centre for Information Technologies in Education (CITE), the body of the Ministry of Education and Science responsible for implementation of ICT in education in Lithuania, currently uses ATutor-based platform to provide distance learning courses for teachers on Pedagogical part of Teachers’ Computer Literacy Standard.
Several innovative VLEs implementation projects are under implementation in CITE at the moment. They are [5]:
Distance learning courses for gifted and special educational needs children. The aim is to implement collaborative distance learning courses on different subjects, especially for gifted children as well as children with special educational needs. ATutor-based VLE purchased while implementing Education Improvement Programme as well as Moodle VLE were chosen for implementation of these courses.
CALIBRATE (Calibrating e-Learning in Schools). Project is financed by FP6-2004-IST-4. CALIBRATE brings together eight Ministries of Education, leading research institutions, validation experts, technology providers and SMEs to carry out a multi-level project designed to support the collaborative use and exchange of LOs / resources in schools. The project aims to: (1) further develop and implement an open source brokerage system architecture as the basis for a European Learning Resource Exchange (LRE); (2) develop an open source learning toolbox (VLE) to support the collaborative use of learning resources accessed via the LRE; (3) carry out research into new ways to improve the semantic interoperability of learning resource descriptions; (4) validate CALIBRATE project results in up to 100 schools using an advanced validation methodology.
Programme for ICT implementation in vocational training. The aim of this in-service teacher training project financed by European Social Fund is to train about 3000 teachers of vocational schools how to use LOs and VLE for blended learning. 12 collaborative distance learning courses based on purchased LOs and VLE have to be prepared for teachers, and training would be implemented in 2007. VLE Moodle was chosen as the most suitable for this project [4].
It was shown clearly that Open Source VLEs are not of less quality on module level than proprietary products while being more attractive for educational institutions from financial point of view [4]. Therefore it was proposed Lithuanian educational institutions to widely implement Open Source VLEs.
Moodle was evaluated as the most suitable VLE for wide implementation in Lithuanian general education and vocational training institutions, as well as for teacher in-service training system [4]. Its fundamental advantages in comparison with the other Open Source systems are: (1) clear social constructivist philosophy and design; (2) modular, extensible architecture; (3) wide and lively developer and user community.
Short Lithuanian experience of VLEs and LOs implementation shows that neither providers of content / services nor teachers are ready to fully use socio-constructivist potentials of VLEs and LOs at the moment.
It is planned to prepare national e-Learning content and services strategy and supplementary documents as well as Distance learning framework for general education in 2006. These policy documents have to outline the ways of using the potentials of VLEs and LOs to support innovative pedagogies in Lithuania.
Conclusion 6: The potential of VLEs is still not fully used in Lithuania. The main reason for this – ICT development stage in majority of schools in Lithuania is still emerging or applying.
7 Overall Conclusions and Challenges
There are different kinds of ICT tools and systems to support various pedagogies.
Wide implementation of VLEs and LOs has the great potential to support active collaborative learner-centred pedagogies.
VLEs could show their full pedagogical potential in schools/colleges which are already at the infusing and transforming approaches of ICT development. The main preconditions for this are: (1) the focus of the curriculum is learner-centred and integrates subject areas in real-world applications, and (2) more formative assessment schemes prevail.
There are a great number of benefits which VLEs and LOs provide to innovative learner-centred pedagogies. VLEs and LOs have the potentials to: (1) improve access to resources; (2) extend learning time; (3) increase communication; (4) provide access for minorities; (5) provide ‘brain-centred’ learning; (6) provide publishing and audience; (7) use more information channels; (8) increase motivation; (9) rebalance teaching and learning; (10) provide scaleability and replicability; (11) provide management and recording.
The potential of VLEs is still not fully used because of the lack of appropriate teacher training and the ability of existing VLEs to support socio-constructivist pedagogies. The main reason for this – ICT development stage in majority of schools in Europe is still applying.
VLEs are NOT neutral in their impact on pedagogies. We could divide VLEs to more ‘content centred’ and more ‘learner centred’ systems.
The potential of VLEs is still not fully used in Lithuania. The main reason for this – ICT development stage in majority of schools in Lithuania is still emerging or applying.
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