A virtual
learning environment (VLE) is a web-based educational platform for delivering
learning materials to students, usually within educational institutions.
A virtual
learning environment allows you to enjoy a more flexible schedule, reduces the
cost of your degree and helps develop your career alongside furthering your
education more easily. Let's explore the importance of virtual learning in this digital age.
The importance of virtual learning in the digital age |
Why are virtual learning
environments so important in the digital age?
What is Virtual Learning?
Virtual
learning is a method for communicating knowledge and obtaining information and
training via the Internet.
A
Virtual Learning Environment is a web-based education system for delivering
learning materials to students, usually within educational institutions.
These
systems include resources, communication tools, interactions within a course
structure, student tracking, and different stages of assessment.
This modern
type of learning provides a set of advanced educational tools such as e-mail
and creating websites for courses that can add value to education.
A virtual
learning environment consists of creating virtual educational platforms that
integrate technology in the educational field in order to improve the learning
process and enhance the relationship between learning materials and the
way they are obtained using technological tools such as computers, cell phones,
tablets, and also in order to achieve interaction between them.”
Moreover,
through virtual learning, the student can obtain a greater ability to control,
as he learns according to his abilities, desires, preparations, and also his
previous knowledge.
Virtual
learning is designed on the basis of the qualitative content and the mechanism
of presenting the material in the best way in accordance with the content. This
steady relationship makes this experiment constantly evolving. The more
experienced, the better the performance and the better the results.
Virtual
learning also provides a variety of learning options for its students, with
curricula selected from the world's most prestigious internationally recognized
universities.
The virtual
learning technique is supported by a group of virtual private gatherings of
university professors and scholars studying in the world who will add the
cultural component of our societies to the global scientific content.
As virtual
universities offer the opportunity to obtain university majors accredited
through multiple university resources across the world, wherever you are and at
any time.
Virtual Learner
A virtual
learner means the virtual agent who replaces the student in educational
sessions when he is unable to attend them or the virtual companion, and these
are in fact neither students nor real companions.
The
student or virtual companion here is an intelligent instructional and
educational program with which the real student interacts. Instead of choosing
a real student, he can choose a hypothetical student with whom he will share
access to solutions to problems, and take turns with him.
The roles of
a learner in the virtual learning environment may include:
- A virtual learner thinks with complete independence and has the ability to visualize, communicate and interact with society.
- Grows mentally in a way that emphasizes the acquisition of creative thinking and critical thinking skills, able to understand and absorb thinking strategies.
- Can access information by himself and can interact with different educational situations in terms of planning, follow-up, guidance, and evaluation.
- Has an ambition to learn and excel in it, which requires his possession of the skill of self-organization to learn.
Virtual Teacher
A virtual
teacher is the one who interacts with the learner electronically and assumes
the educational supervision burdens on the proper functioning of learning.
A virtual
teacher may be inside an educational institution or in his home, and often this
teacher is not linked to a specific time for work, but rather his dealings with
the educational institution are the number of courses that he supervises and is
responsible for them and the number of students registered with him.
The roles of
the teacher in the virtual learning environment are as follows:
- A virtual teacher operates, uses computers and teach computational principles
- Computers are optimized for collecting, processing, and presenting the information.
- He designs students' activities electronically.
- Uses multiple and superior tools to support learning processes.
Importance of Virtual Learning in the Digital Age
With technological
advances and the spread of the Internet, the concept of virtual learning and accredited online
education is rapidly developing in universities all over the world.
A virtual learning environment allows you to enjoy
a more flexible schedule, it reduces the cost of your degree, and helps develop
your career along with increasing your education more easily.
And higher
education institutions are constantly seeking to employ new technologies to
become more productive, to manage the development strategies they adopt, in
addition to effectively rebuilding the curriculum in order to meet the diverse
needs and expectations of students and engage students in learning.
With the continuous development that the world is experiencing today, virtual learning has become of great importance in many areas, due to its features, including:
- A virtual learning environment provides flexibility in setting study times.
- Provides continuous education, and the ability to study anywhere in the world without being bound by geographical borders.
- Provides the solution for educating students in remote areas.
- Reduces time and costs and provides greater freedom to control your study and work times.
- Diversifies the educational material.
- Receives software updates instantly.
- Eases and guarantees the student’s journey, as university students do not need to go to the university and wait in line at the Admission and Registration Department, but rather allows them to register and pay through the Internet.
- Provides the possibility of studying while continuing to work.
- It has the possibility of studying and training at any time, as it is an open center around the clock.
- It has the ability to obtain the guide's instructions, and direct inquiries to him easily.
- Provides the ability to browse books through what is known as an electronic library.
- Provides university students with the ability to study many different specializations that they may not find in traditional universities.
- Increases the efficiency of the education and training process.
- Reduces the idea of young people emigrating outside their countries to obtain university degrees. The student can study special courses that are not available in his country's universities, and study the rare specializations that it is difficult to find in many universities of the world.
Adopting the
Internet as a basic and tremendous source to extract information that makes the
student aware of the latest findings of researchers in the field of study,
especially if he is studying one of the technical areas that are developing
moment by moment.
Nature of virtual learning, which mainly depends on the interactive discussion and interactive mutual dialogue between students and teachers, makes the student a major participant in the educational process. It is a method of great benefit for the student, by which virtual learning breaks the traditional method of teaching.