A Flexible Approach
The merger of virtual learning environments and social networking will alter the learner's experience and create a passion for learning
The arrival of Web 2.0 is transforming virtual learning environments into powerful, versatile platforms that enhance the learning experience of both students in academic institutions and professionals in corporate organisations. The social networking facilities of Web 2.0 allow users to publish their own content on the web and effortlessly interact with their peers. As a result, today’s virtual learning environments must become far more flexible than the typical definition suggests.
One definition from JISC infoNet, the advisory service funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee, implies ‘a collection of integrated tools enabling the management of online learning, providing a delivery mechanism, student tracking, assessment and access to resources’. But virtual learning environments and social networking tools are set to merge, creating a highly adaptable e-learning environment.
A 2005 report from JISC on the use of virtual learning environments in higher and further education in the UK showed that 86% of further education colleges, 97% of pre-1992 universities and 90% of post-1992 universities were using at least one type of virtual learning environment.
Three years on, JISC’s June 2008 report, ‘Great Expectations of ICT: how higher education institutions are measuring up’, found that 79% of students access course-specific materials at least once a week and 97% of those find them useful in supporting their studies. It also showed that social networking sites are being used more widely and more frequently, mainly for personal or social reasons.
The findings of the JISC study suggest Web 2.0 is used in learning by some learners as a way to discuss coursework, source material and communicate with both peers and lecturers. Around a quarter of learners contact tutors or lecturers by email or text on at least a weekly basis.
On the corporate side, an April 2008 Chartered Institute of Personnel Development survey showed that 80% of public sector organisations and 49% of private sector businesses use e-learning. The report highlighted the opportunities for self-discovery and networking brought by Web 2.0, stating: “In the absence of any agreed definition of e-learning, those polled for this CIPD survey will have taken e-learning to include the much wider range of electronically delivered learning materials available in 2008, from learning management system delivered courses to electronic performance support systems, the use of social networks and Google to support informal learning.”
Redefining interaction
The benefits of e-learning are often quoted and range from reduced time and cost travelling to external training venues, to personalised learning and reduced cost of learning delivery. Distance learning allows trainers to reach a greater number of learners and allows learners who are unable to travel to a centre for courses to have greater control over the time and place where they learn. Other benefits described by JISC infoNet include the fact that using a virtual learning environment can decrease failure rates and increase performance. Also, as students are able to explore at their own pace, they are able to participate more actively in classroom activities.
Kamales Lardi, author of research from Deloitte on the opportunities and threats for business in virtual worlds says: “The inevitable changes brought about by virtual environments will redefine the way businesses interact with consumers and enable more sophisticated collaboration within organisations.”
External factors, such as government policy, also encourage businesses to adopt e-learning. According to independent consultant John Helmer: “In the general e-learning market organisational training has very much made the running in innovation, driven by the demands of a rapidly changing business environment that has thrown the spotlight on issues of skills and human capital.”
Virtual learning environments are viewed by experts as an ideal way to provide opportunities for managers to reflect on their practice and believe universities need to consider how to structure a learning environment that is sufficiently flexible to cater for the long hours and various locations in which managers work. What is required is a learning environment that provides opportunities for reflection on professional practice and a network of tacit knowledge. It must also cater for the time limitations and physical needs of peripatetic managers.
E-learning brings opportunities such as collaborative knowledge construction, just-in-time learning, fingertip learning and informal learning. Management research specialist Emerald Group Publishing has developed InTouch, a platform integrating Web 2.0 tools to enhance the learning experience of users by allowing them to create and join communities of practice, engage in reflective learning and collaborate with peers online. Such technology is driving the development of what some term e-Learning 2.0, which encapsulates tools such as blogging, e-portfolios and personal learning centres where content is reused and remixed according to a student’s own needs and interests.
Work by Emerald on the trends in technology and the market for e-learning highlights access to the web, stating: “People with access to the web are learning from one another on a peer-to-peer basis using blogs, listservs, user groups and other networking tools that allow participants to pose questions that are specific to the problems they are facing at that moment and to receive answers, suggestions and moral support from colleagues around the world.”
The learning environment is as crucial as the quality of the content. A Deloitte article on maximising return on e-learning investment points out that both the physical and cultural environment can have a profound impact on the success of e-learning. It also stresses the importance of a collaborative environment and that using innovative e-communication tools and techniques will provide the opportunity for learners to collaborate, enriching their learning experience and improving their knowledge capture.
Worldwide engineering contractor Kentz has a widely dispersed workforce providing engineering, construction and management services to oil and gas, petrochemical and mining sectors in Africa, the Arctic, Australasia, the Caribbean, Europe and the Middle East. It uses InTouch to encourage and facilitate collaboration and knowledge-sharing across borders among its 7,000 employees and finds the asynchronous nature of the platform ideal for communicating across time zones. More advanced training groups take a research-based approach to their work, finding the database of over 50,000 articles invaluable. Young graduates and junior engineers use InTouch to support informal learning between formal induction and training courses, while the networking and profile sections help drive collegiality for new recruits.
The next wave
The next wave of e-learning could see virtual learning environments merging with social network environments to become Sloodle – Second Life and the Moodle virtual e-learning platform – as posited by speakers at the 2007 Association for Learning Technologies conference. Virtual environments such as Second Life are also starting to develop into the educational and business sphere.
Procter & Gamble, for example, uses such fully immersive 3D environments as computer augmented virtual environments – or caves – to demonstrate ideas to big customers. Previously, Procter & Gamble would have needed to convince Tesco to change a store layout to test an idea, but it can now create the idea virtually and walk people around it.
Others make the point that Second Life created a learning friendly world in which educational simulations and learning programmes can be easily and relatively cheaply developed.
Virtual learning environments are rapidly morphing into systems that are defined as much by the users as by the educators and facilitators. This change in the balance of power needs to be embraced by those designing online courses in order to boost the informal knowledge and learning networks present in every learning environment. Being open to learn from students as they bring other aspects of their non-work and non-educational life to the learning experience will be key. These aspects could range from an increase in the use of handheld devices to the greater use of gaming technology. A flexible approach will ensure that formal and informal learning mechanisms complement each other and unleash a passion for learning.
Sita Chauhan is a product manager at Emerald Group Publishing