On the blended learning train
Virtual Learning Environment
“Anyone
who wants to offer added value to their clients, should jump on the train.”
According to senior researcher Veronique Warmoes and
programme coordinator Julie Vanfleteren, that train is moving
away from a traditional, formal learning environment towards an informal
learning context, in which individuals learn in their own way and at their own
pace. Time for a look at the virtual learning environment of Vlerick Leuven Gent
Management School.
A multi-faceted spectrum
Veronique Warmoes: “The virtual learning environment is about more than just putting a few slides from a lecture on the web. It has many different facets and functions.”
As a business school, we have an important contribution to make on specific topics. Knowledge is disseminated through a variety of media: e-learning modules, online videostreaming, teaching material available online, e-tools, research news websites, webinars, etc.
These media operate as platforms for exchanging information about learning modules and practical matters. This gives course participants, teaching staff and coordinators the opportunity to communicate and interact with one another, through blogs, discussion forums, online document sharing, social networks, live meetings and videoconferences.
The Vlerick Electronic Learning Portfolio (VELP) is a dynamic learning platform that gives students the opportunity to manage their own learning process. They can upload a portfolio about themselves, setting out their qualities and what they are working on. The School can then use this to help them focus on specific competences. The VELP will be launched shortly.
An educational challenge
Julie Vanfleteren: “We try as much as we can to get our clients to work with their peers more, to exchange information and discuss various topics. The participants have to take the initiative themselves; that’s one of the most important requirements. This calls for a change in mindset, however, especially among the current generation of executives.”
Veronique Warmoes: “They need to be intrinsically motivated. As an education provider, you can stimulate motivation by defining your target group clearly: our youngest participants, the Masters students, handle a virtual learning environment very differently from middle managers, for example. Each group requires a different learning approach. Your tools need to be attractive and powerful for everyone, as well as being based on sound academic knowledge. It’s also important for your learning environment to be up to date; constant dynamism keeps the platform lively.”
A step up to blended learning
Julie Vanfleteren: “Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School’s core activities are research and quality teaching. As an international business school, we have a very strong classroom setting. The advantage of the virtual learning environment is that it can reinforce the content of the lessons given in class. The level may be slightly higher, as participants could be given the basic frameworks in advance via e-modules; alternatively, the lessons can be based more around case studies.”
Veronique Warmoes: “A virtual learning platform can guide, support or supplement the content of lessons through, for instance, e-learning packages. The advantage of e-learning is that you decide for yourself when, where and how you learn. It makes individualised learning possible. Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School currently uses its virtual learning environment mainly to support its lessons, but I’m convinced that we should move towards full integration of e-learning with face-to-face teaching. Blended learning is an important aspiration."
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The best way to convey new teaching methods is to experiment with them yourself. Here are a few interesting examples to be found on Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School’s virtual learning environment.
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What’s next?
Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School has certainly not missed the online train. “Yet this is only the beginning,” point out Veronique Warmoes and Julie Vanfleteren. At the moment the various competence centres are trying out a variety of tools to see which learning methods will best fit in with the School, its vision and its teaching methods and to achieve an optimum e-mix. “There are quite a few projects in the pipeline, such as Professional Coordinator Jumpstart, new online business games and the Knowledge Research Platform.” The train has left the station. Now it’s time to wave it off on a successful journey.
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Info: Julie Vanfleteren |