Virtual Learning Environments

VLE/LMS

The name Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) and Learning Management System (LMS) are used interchangeably. There are a large number of Open Source systems available. These are free to schools.

What do they do?

A VLE allows a student to follow a course of study at their own pace, possibly from a remote location. The teacher can see what documents the student has opened, how long they worked on them and the results of any tests.

Advantages

Students go at their own pace, personalised learning is possible. The material can provide a rich multimedia experience. Assessment data is collected automatically. It can support students away fom school - travellers, children who are sick or excluded, in cover lessons where non- specialist staff are taking lessons and as part of a 'blended' lesson involve traditional teaching as well.

Disadvantages

Material on VLE's is usually not 'mobile' it cannot be moved between installations. You cannot at the moment buy a KS3 English module and drop it in the VLE. The teacher usually has to create material from scratch every time.

Coming Soon...

There is a standard for creating multimedia teaching modules that can be moved between LMS's. It is called SCORM, the most up to date version, called SCORM 2004gives much more information to the LMS. Both Moodle and Dokeos will be able to handle it by the end of his year.

What is available?

Moodle

Moodle is the most popular in UK schools. It has an underlying philosophy called "social constructionist pedagogy" this means it encourages the use of forums (I know the plural should be Fora) chat rooms and Wikis.

DiDA in Moodle

The release in June of the 4 DVD's of DiDA material by the NWGFL will make difference to the debate about VLE/LMS. Disc 4 consists of 'backup' discs for Moodle. Because Moodle cannot export in SCORM, its materials cannot be used by other LMS, but if it is backed up, then those files can be put into a Moodle installation and restored. The process can be complex and takes a while. follow this link to open a PDF tutorial.

Dokeos

A smaller, lighter installation that allows the creation of 'learning pathways' It also allows the importation of html pages and multimedia content.

SCORM

SCORM (Sharable Courseware Object Reference Model) is a standard for creating mobile and transportable multimedia teaching packages between different VLE/LMS. By the end of this year both of the LMS's will be able to handle the latest version SCORM 2004.

RELOAD

RELOAD is a free program for assembling SCORM modules for use in LMS.

eXe

ExE is a very easy to use progam for creating and assembling teaching packages for LMS.

DiDA in Moodle tutorial Here