Evaluation of How the Blended Use of a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) Can Impact on Learning and Teaching in a Specific Module

Abstract

This paper explores how the blended use of a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) can impact on student learning in a specific module within a small university in the UK. Students studying a module about crisis situations faced by children in different parts of the world were asked to contribute to online forums as part of their learning. 47 students participated in the study. Student questionnaires, Moodle reports and student assessment grades were analysed to explore the benefits of online forums. In line with previous research, online forums were found to be popular with students and multiple perceived benefits were identified, such as flexibility, greater sense of community and enhanced higher learning skills. Analysis of student assessment grades suggest that online forums may also enhance student performance, however, a larger scale longitudinal study is necessary to determine this more clearly. Overall, the findings highlight the importance of viewing VLEs as a communication, collaboration and knowledge focused medium with the potential to enhance higher learning skills through the use of interactive online activities such as forums.

To BlikBook or not to BlikBook: Exploring student engagement of an online discussion platform

“…The number of student hits on a particular part of a VLE can be viewed as a measure of its success (Lyndon & Hale, 2014), although this is but one indicator and others, such as student perception, are at least as important (Stricker et al, 2011). Nevertheless, 99 postings were made by 72 different students (16% of the cohort), and almost 9,000 views were made in a 17-week period by over 400 different students (93% of the cohort).…”

Effectiveness of the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) for online teaching, learning, and assessment: Perspectives of Academics and Students of the Royal University of Bhutan

“…A study on "Evaluating students experiences using VLE: Satisfaction and preference in Middlesex University, England"revealed that students' preferred lecture capture and key concepts videos because of their benefits on learning, whereas lecture capture with PowerPoint slides and audio only were not preferred considering its lesser benefits (Hamutoglu et al, 2019). Lyndon and Hale (2014) highlighted the importance of using VLE for students' engagement with the potential to enhance higher learning skills through the use of interactive online activities such as discussion forums. The study recommended to empower the university teachers to use other VLE interactive tools to promote participation and engagement among students (Molotsi, 2020).…”

“…S35 said, "If we are taught to use every available feature in that platform it would be very easy for us to learn". Many researchers found that more training for teachers and students is essential for online TLA(Ahmed &Ikram Khan, 2020; Gold, 2001;Lyndon & Hale, 2014).The interaction of students, teachers and materials will be effective on the VLE platform, if the students are given enough training sessions on using VLE features.…”

The effect of attendance on student performance: implications of using virtual learning on overall performance

“…Over the last 20 years, the teaching and learning landscape of universities has encountered unprecedented change as institutions adapt to the challenges and innovations of technology (Saykili, 2019). However, institutions appear undecided about how to measure the impact of virtual learning environments (VLEs), usually resorting to measuring success in terms of the number of student hits on a particular online resource (Donnelly and O'Rourke, 2007;Lyndon and Hale, 2014). Due to the current global pandemic crisis, educational institutions were forced to adapt to various teaching-learning activities while establishing a linkage between a change management process and an online teaching process, as to Effect of attendance on student performance overcome any persisting academic disturbance to the procedure in the education system (Mishra et al, 2020).…”