The Virtual Learning Environment

The titles of ‘learning management system’ and ‘course management system’ can both be defined as a virtual learning environment (VLE). In an educational setting, a VLE is a software system designed to support education by providing a platform for instruction and learning to occur. VLE’s have become an important component of the higher education system.

A good VLE should provide an interface that allows instructors and students to effectively manage and participate in the course. Some of the features it should provide include the ability to publish a course syllabus and other general course information, an announcement board, the ability for students to register and pay for courses, access to course materials, links to outside supporting materials, assessment tools, methods of communication including email, chat rooms, message boards, and threaded discussions, universal availability, expandability, compatibility with various operating systems and software, and security. A VLE that provides these features will allow both instructors and students to get the most out of their online learning experience.

Although there are some similarities, most of the tools we have learned to use in this course are generally not included as features of a VLE. However, neither were the vast majority of the tools we used in the class collectively available from any single source. This course began with a VLE (Blackboard), but was expanded by incorporating web-based tools from numerous providers. A VLE should provide the foundation for successful online learning to occur. From there, it is up to the instructor to enhance the students’ learning experience by incorporating the types of tools we used in this course.

One important concept to be taken from this class is that learning does not necessarily need to stay within the confines of a traditional, commercially available VLE. As we have seen this semester, a wiki and a blog can easily serve as the basis of a VLE. The versatility of these two tools combined has allowed us to integrate our wiki and blog pages with aggregators, social bookmarking, web conferencing, audio podcasting, photo and video sharing, polls and surveys, map building, and web office applications. An ambitious instructor can easily enhance their online classroom by looking further than their institutions’ VLE and incorporating these web-based tools.

Although I took time to look at all of the VLE providers listed on our assignment page for this week, I have experience with both Blackboard and Angel. I find both to offer more than adequate features to appropriately facilitate successful online learning. In fact, there are features within both systems that I have not used in any class. I personally prefer the appearance, or interface, of Angel, but both are quality systems. Furthermore, both systems are easy to navigate. With basic computer knowledge, new students should easily adapt to online learning if provided with Blackboard or Angel.

Web Office Applications

Much like the other web based applications we have worked with this semester, online office applications can be yet another valuable tool for use in the online classroom. This is a great method to get students to work colaboratively in the online environment as they would in the traditional classroom.

Just as we have seen from students in our class this past week, instructors can use web based applications to seek student input on any given document. It could be that a professor has a new rubric that he intends to use for a future class. He could seek input and recommendations from current students by posting the document online and asking students to make changes based upon their critique. Instructors could also post assignments via web based documents. An instructor could require students to complete their portion of the assignment by filling in certain portions of a document. When all of the students have completed their assignments, the result would be a finished document.

Disadvantages of web based document editing do exist. It could be possible for an instructor to not know which student made changes. Or a student could potentially make irreparable mistakes to the document. These must be considered before an instructor posts a document for students to edit.

I chose to use Google for this assignment. It was easy to access their information since I already have a Google account, and their generic templates provided me with ample choices for a document to post. I can certainly see myself using web office applications as an instructor but there are limitations to be considered.

Surveys and Polls

Creating a poll or survey for use in the online learning environment is a simple and practical enhancement for the virtual classroom. If used properly, a survey or poll can prove to be a valuable online option for both students and instructors. Polls and surveys encourage candid and honest communications between students and instructors, and the data collected can prove quite useful once compiled and translated into information.

Colleges and universities have long recognized the value of surveying their students. The feedback obtained from these surveys is used to gauge student impressions of instructors, courses, campus facilities, and academic support functions. Institutions are increasingly using the online format to conduct these types of assessments for both traditional classroom courses and distance learning courses. Once compiled, the data collected from these surveys helps an institution to better meet the needs of its students.

However the value of such surveys and polls should not be overlooked when considering the coursework performed during a class. Surveys and polls can support any number of functions when taken as a measure of opinion for a specific class function. Instructors can use surveys and polls to collect demographic information from students, gauge quality and relevance of tests and assignments, and assess the positions of students when a group decision needs to be made. Students may wish to utilize polls and surveys to collect data for a class research project by using fellow students as their research group.

I chose to use Freepolls to conduct my poll. The process of registering, developing my poll question, and posting it to my blog took a mere five minutes to complete. This assignment has particular relevance for me at the present time because my union is considering the implementation of online voting for elections and other union issues. I plan to conduct further research on all of the survey and poll providers listed on this week's assignment and present my findings to my local union.

Online Video Sharing For Education

Once again, I have a new tool for my toolbox of online educational tools. Video sharing provides yet another method for communication to occur between students and instructors within the confines of the virtual classroom. This was another week of learning that can result in practical application for distance learning education.

Like photo sharing and podcasting, online video sharing can enhance the communication that occurs between students and instructors participating in distance learning courses. Instructors can create and post videos to provide students with specific details or instructions to an assignment. And like photo sharing, instructors may have personal video collections from their own experiences that could be used to help students connect their written text or materials with visual aids of a specific location or procedure. Instructors can also use video to post their own lectures and even to simply add variety to the methods of presentation for their course materials.

Much like photo sharing, students can use video sharing to document their completion of assignments that might include physically visiting a specific location, or the completion of a model or project and demonstration of how it works. Videos might also be used by students as a means of documenting an oral presentation or speech assignment. Furthermore, students and instructors might find that video introductions are a more personal method for completing introductory assignments that usually occur during the early days of a new class.

As you might have already noticed, my video sharing assignment is posted on two different video hosting sights. The sites are Vimeo and Pixorial, and I will explain how I ended up with both.

I started with Pixorial. The video was fairly easy to upload, and the site features a few options like the ability to create a title. But once I submitted my clip for posting, Pixorial took about six days to notify me it was ready to view. In the meantime, I became nervous and thought that my request to post the clip somehow did not work. I needed to find another site provider.

I then began to explore Vimeo. Once again, the video was easy to upload, but the title feature was not present like with Pixorial. The Vimeo viewing screen turned out to be larger than Pixorial, and my description of the video is posted directly under the video for easy viewing. And Vimeo took only about 10 minutes to notify me that the video was ready to post. Once the Pixorial video finally became available, I decided to post both to better document my experience.

Overall, I found this exercise to be fairly easy on both sites. Once again, I could certainly see myself using online video sharing while teaching an online class. Furthermore, I expect to take advantage of these services for my own personal use as well.

Tigers and Monkeys

This week's assignment was to post photographs on a photo sharing website, then provide a link to those photos so that others may view them. I chose Bubbleshare as my photo sharing website, and the link to my photos can be found on my class wiki page.

Photo sharing of this type provides a valuable tool for use in the virtual classroom. Although not as versatile as last week's podcast, photo sharing on the web can enhance the learning experience between students and their instructor.

Instructors can use photo sharing to document and demonstrate. Perhaps students are studying the American Civil War in a history class, and their instructor has traveled extensively to battle sites to build a photo collection from those locations. The instructor could easily post his photo collection on a photo sharing site to provide students with visual aids to enhance their readings and studies. Or maybe an instructor teaching a class on health and safety would like to show students the steps to donning a level II hazmat entry suit. This instructor could document the steps of the procedure with photos and post them for his students to view and study.

Students can also use photo sharing to document their knowledge of a particular subject. An instructor could assign students to visit a location and students could verify their completion of the assignment with photos. Perhaps a student is given an assignment to construct or build something by following certain specific steps. Photos could be used to document the student's progress and show the instructor that the student has followed the directions.

These are only a few examples of how photo sharing can be used to enhance the virtual classroom. Photo sharing is a valuable tool that both instructors and students have at their disposal to make the online learning experience more valuable.

After briefly exploring the various examples of web-based photo sharing services, I chose Bubbleshare to post mine. For me, this was probably the easiest assignment so far. After choosing the photos I wanted to post, it took me about five minutes to upload them and post a summary of the photos. I definitely see the advantages, both personally and educationally, of using a site like Bubbleshare. This will definitely be another example of something I will continue to use in the future!

Education and a Podcast

This week, our assignment was to create and post a podcast. I will discuss my own experience in doing so, as well as the educational value of using podcasts in the virtual classroom.

Creating my podcast with the Audacity software was really simple. The software was very easy to download, and creating a recording was just as easy. I was able to record my spoken portion of the recording first, then import music that I downloaded free from Frostwire. Audacity gives a user the ability to adjust the volume levels of the two tracks so that, in my case, the music was at a lower volume than my voice. I do have some experience with this type of software. My Mac came preloaded with Garage Band which is similar but more complex than Audacity. Garage Band allows users to record using instruments as well, such as a guitar.

I chose gcast to post my podcast. Once again, registering and posting the podcast was quite simple. The link to my podcast is posted on my wiki page.

The potential educational uses of podcasting are endless. In distance education, podcasts can be used to supplement written course materials. They are also a good method to personalize messages between instructors and students. Furthermore, a student can take a podcast with them. With any standard MP3 player, a student can listen to a podcast while doing any number of activities.

In the traditional classroom, podcasts can be just as useful. Professors who put their lectures into podcast form provide valuable options to their students. Having a lecture in the form of a podcast is a great method for students to review a lecture to ensure thorough comprehension. Also if a student were to miss a class or portion thereof, they can easily hear exactly what the class heard during their absence by listening to the podcast.

During my research of podcasting this week, I found several publications that I thought might be of interest to the class. I will attach those publications to a message on our class discussion board on Blackboard.

Two Nights, Two Web Conferences

Once again, I have been exposed to a computer technology that I knew existed but had never used until this week. The potential for using web conferencing in conjunction with distance education classes is great. It can be used to bring students and instructors together in a more personal manner than traditional threaded discussions. As an instructor, I can see myself using web conferencing as part of Internet-based distance learning courses.

I was fortunate to have been able to participate in two very different types of web conferences over the past several days. The first occurred on Thursday evening and was initiated and hosted by Amanda. She chose to use Central Desktop. In addition to Amanda and myself, Mike, Kimberly, and Doug participated. The forum we used was centered around a Wiki, where each of us (once added to the group by Amanda) could participate in building the Wiki. The conference included an instant message component, audio via telephone, and the ability to give control of the desktop to each of the participants. The participant controlling the desktop could display items from their own computer. This experience was quite similar to the demonstration of Gotomeeting provided by Professor Morriss in his Distance Education class.

My second experience occurred last night with Veronica on Skype. Veronica initiated this conference and chose Skype as the provider. The conference consisted of a real-time audio and video discussion between the two of us. To participate in this type of conference, participants must have a microphone and webcam. The quality of both the audio and video was excellent, with no delay or "stutter" of either.

The benefits and capabilities of each of these two types of web conferencing providers are very different, but both certainly have a place in the virtual classroom. Of the two, I liked the Skype conference the most. It was extremely easy to use and required little preparation. The Central Desktop program contains a lot of features and does require more time to learn how to successfully navigate through its features.

I also found an interesting paper on the web about the future of web conferencing in education. It was written by Barbara Schroeder of Boise State University. It is published by Microsoft and does contain a sales pitch for their Live Meeting 2007 software, but also contains good information on this topic. The web address is

http://www.microsoft.com/education/highered/whitepapers/conferencing/WebConferencing.aspx