Keywords: VLE, capability, innovation, access, identity

Abstract of paper for ECEL 2004

Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) occupy a pivotal position in the development of e-learning. They offer more than simple facilities for access to learning resources and course administration. Because of their apparent comprehensiveness, they may completely dominate the way in which a course is delivered and assessed. However a lecturer has available only those tools built in to one particular. This paper argues that limitations of capability within a VLE can severely restrict innovation in e-Learning when attempts to translate successful learning activities from traditional modes of delivery to e-Learning fail as a result of restrictions in the VLE being used. To overcome this, the specification of a VLE’s facilities should include capabilities that may not seem to have any immediate educational use – at least to the implementers of the VLE. This approach of making VLEs rich in capability to encourage innovation can be explored by considering some learning activities that might be difficult to undertake with the present generation of VLEs. In this paper we consider two specific aspects of this broad issue – access to resources and identity of users.

Access to learning objects in a VLE is typically provided to an individual, group, or whole class. This answers, in part, the question – ‘Who has access?’. Posing other questions shows that there is a severely limited set of possibilities for access. For example the question ‘When is access given?’, suggests several learning activities where the access might be varied according to a preplanned schedule or in response to teaching needs. Another question is ‘For what is access provided’, raising issues of the rights of teacher and student to read, use, create, write and change learning objects as well as the question of ownership. When used for distance learning ‘Where?’ the student is located may also suggest facilities which should be provided. The paper will explore what answers might be given to these questions.

In a conventional VLE the identity of each participant is clearly known – a student is an individual, a class member and perhaps a member of a group. There have been attempts such as that of Freeman(1998) to use e-Learning for role-play, in which situation participants must be anonymous. This raises several issues about the nature of electronic identity in a VLE. One is - if a person can disguise their true identity will this aid their learning? There are obvious problems in allowing anonymity. Should identity be mutable and what mechanisms might there be for revealing and hiding identity? Who, if anybody, knows a student’s true identity? Does a person have to reveal identity to any one. In this environment the nature of identity is of relevance. Students can be required to have on-line biographies, a requirement that might be extended to anonymous users to have biographies relating to their anonymous personae. Again these issues will be explored in the paper and aspects of the interaction between access and identity will also be considered.

References

Freeman, M A and Capper J M (1998) An Anonymous Asynchronous Web-based Role Play, ASCILITE