scholarly journals The Use of Wikis within the Virtual Learning Environment to Support Collaborative Working and their Influence on Students’ Learning Experience

Author(s):  
Maren Viol

Wikis are collaborative websites and are increasingly used by organisations for working in groups and sharing knowledge. Furthermore, universities have recently started to implement wikis for teaching and learning purposes. The academic literature suggests that wikis are a suitable tool to enhance constructivist learning environments as well as to develop students’ employability skills. Furthermore, wikis can help mitigate some of the common challenges of group work at university. This paper explores students’ experiences with the informal use of wikis that are embedded in the university’s virtual learning environment (VLE) and provides suggestions for the implementation of similar wikis in other situations. It is based on data that were gathered in a module for first year undergraduate Festival and Event Management students at a UK University. Findings suggest some negative experiences with VLE wikis on this module due to the layout of the wiki software, combined with readily available means of online collaboration such as Facebook that students were more familiar with. The findings constitute the basis for advice on using wikis in the future. Most importantly, the wiki software should possess as many of the key characteristics of a wiki as possible. Furthermore, the research confirms several findings from other studies: Students should be given guidance on how they can use and benefit from the wiki and how it is used by the teaching team for monitoring and marking. For high levels of student engagement, a mandatory use of the wiki should be considered, or, alternatively, a thorough embedding of the wiki in the curriculum combined with high levels of staff engagement needs to be in place. 

EAD em FOCO ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Adriano Theodoro ◽  
Gerlinde Agate Platais Brasil Teixeira ◽  
Claudia Marcia Borges Barreto

Descrevemos o processo de criação colaborativa de um ambiente virtual de aprendizagem (AVA) de acordo com os princípios das metodologias ativas de ensino e a sua avaliação. O ambiente virtual foi usado no apoio ao ensino presencial. Participaram dessa experiência híbrida de aprendizagem estudantes da disciplina Imunobiologia, oferecida no primeiro ano de um curso tradicional de graduação em Medicina. Ao término da disciplina, foi aplicado um questionário para avaliar a facilidade de uso e a percepção dos estudantes sobre a qualidade do aprendizado adquirido. A maioria dos estudantes que avaliaram a intervenção pedagógica afirmou que o ambiente foi fácil de usar, atendeu às expectativas de apoio ao ensino presencial e as atividades didáticas foram importantes para o aprendizado de habilidades como reflexão, pesquisa e discussão. Portanto, o ambiente virtual desenvolvido foi bem-sucedido e bem-aceito pelos estudantes.Palavras-chave: Educação a distância, Moodle; Ensino de Imunologia, Mapa conceitual.? Evaluation of a Virtual Learning Environment of ImmunologyAbstractWe herein describe the process of collaborative creation and evaluation of a Virtual Learning Environment of Immunology according to the principles of active learning. The Web-based platform was used in support of face to face classroom teaching. First year Medicine undergraduate students attending Immunobiology? course participated in this blended learning experience. At the end of the course, a questionnaire was applied to evaluate the ease of use and the students' perception of the quality of the acquired learning. Most students assessed the educational intervention said that the environment was easy to use, supports the classroom teaching and the educational activities were important for learning skills such as reflection, research and discussion. Therefore, the developed virtual environment was successful and well accepted by the students. Keywords: Distance learning, Moodle, Immunology teaching, Concept map.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. e41110212727
Author(s):  
Carlos Gomes Fontinelle ◽  
Laura Michaella Batista Ribeiro ◽  
Vitor Bremgartner da Frota ◽  
Daniel Nascimento-e-Silva

This study developed a virtual learning environment to support face-to-face teaching of the subject of Mobile Cellular Telephony of a federal institution of professional and technological education that operates in Northern Brazil. The methodology used consisted of quantitative-qualitative research, of a technological nature, developed in seven stages: 1) installation of the XAMPP and Moodle software, 2) configuration of the teaching environment, 3) allocation of the Moodle platform, 4) use of virtual resources interactive, 5) production of learning objects, 6) measurement of environmental performance indicators and 7) analysis and generation of results. The results showed that a) this was the first virtual learning experience for almost all participating students and teachers interviewed, b) teachers and students were motivated to use virtual environments in their teaching and learning activities, since c) the environment proved to be highly efficient and effective in generating effective learning and d) almost all students carried out the evaluation questions without much difficulty, as usually happens with traditional classes. The conclusion was that a discipline planned from the Moodle platform's perspective has several advantages, such as optimizing study time and the dynamics of classes.


Author(s):  
Sue Franklin ◽  
Mary Peat

Science teaching in the new millennium will need to suit the students' needs and understanding, and employers' expectations. Choosing to learn will help form the learning opportunities presented. This paper looks at the way the delivery of teaching and learning materials for large first year biology units of study has changed over a period of time during which there have been reductions in staff resources and increases in student numbers. The strategies currently used to manage student learning and improve the learning experience will be detailed. These include a mix of on campus and online opportunities such as the management of laboratory classes in a peer mode model and the recent re-purposing of existing online resources to provide a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). The VLE offers a safe, student centred learning environment with access to synchronous and asynchronous communications, and access to learning and assessment materials. Reasons for the development of the VLE are discussed, with ideas on the management of campus based teaching in the experimental sciences.


Author(s):  
Li Hsien Ooi ◽  
Lay Huah Goh ◽  
Arathai Din Eak ◽  
Cheng Teik Ong

Online facilitation in distance education presents many challenges that involve both the learners and instructors. Through these challenges, the roles tutors' play and their best practices used in online facilitation should be looked into to improve the distance-learning experience. In view of this, this chapter attempted to examine the perspectives of experienced tutors engaged in the university's virtual learning environment, WawasanLearn. Based on the interview findings of eight tutors, several emergent findings highlighted the roles and challenges of effective online facilitation. As this research is based on the guidelines of the prominent Salmon's model, the findings also highlighted antecedents that substantiate best practices of online facilitation. Findings indicated that understanding the dynamics of online facilitation among relevant stakeholders is critical to improve the teaching and learning experience in distance education.


Author(s):  
Li Hsien Ooi ◽  
Lay Huah Goh ◽  
Arathai Din Eak ◽  
Cheng Teik Ong

Online facilitation in distance education presents many challenges that involve both the learners and instructors. Through these challenges, the roles tutors' play and their best practices used in online facilitation should be looked into to improve the distance-learning experience. In view of this, this chapter attempted to examine the perspectives of experienced tutors engaged in the university's virtual learning environment, WawasanLearn. Based on the interview findings of eight tutors, several emergent findings highlighted the roles and challenges of effective online facilitation. As this research is based on the guidelines of the prominent Salmon's model, the findings also highlighted antecedents that substantiate best practices of online facilitation. Findings indicated that understanding the dynamics of online facilitation among relevant stakeholders is critical to improve the teaching and learning experience in distance education.


Author(s):  
Hafizoah Kassim ◽  
Wan Rosmini Hassan

This chapter reports the application and utilization of virtual learning environment (VLE) in schools, specifically focused on Malaysian schools. The VLE utilization is an initiative by the Ministry of Education (MOE) Malaysia in its vision to embrace the global changes and advancement of technology. With the advancement of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (IR 4.0), this topic is especially important to address. This chapter discusses the provisions of technology-based facilities and tools in schools as part of the change initiatives by MOE Malaysia, and the accompanied teaching and learning practices and trainings affecting the teachers and students. These efforts are exemplified through specific programs which have been implemented namely e-Portfolio in the Genosis Program and Google Classroom, and by linking such endeavors to the Malaysia Education Blueprint. These initiatives are always challenging especially when it involves the utilization of the exponentially advancing technologies. This chapter also highlights the pursuing impacts and challenges of the initiatives on teachers, students, selected schools, and their receptions to change.


2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 52-65
Author(s):  
Rabindra Ku Jena

Recent advances in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) provide an opportunity to build a self growing and sharing virtual environment for teaching and learning. Cloud computing is one of the latest technological advancement in ICT domain. Cloud computing technologies have changed the way applications are developed and accessed. A Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) is a system for delivering learning materials to students via the web. Cloud computing is provides one of the most emerging cost effective solution for virtual learning and teaching environment. This paper discusses how cloud computing has been contributing to virtual learning environment and an overview of the current state of the structure of Cloud Computing based e-learning is discussed. The readers will also find a brief overview of cloud computing and the different efficient cloud based virtual learning models. Towards the end different offers from different cloud vendors are discussed.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document