VIRTUAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

Challenge to Increase Teaching and Learning

Eva Milková and Antonín Slabý

Faculty of Informatics and Management, University of Hradec Králové, Rokitanského 62, Hradec Králové, Czech Republic

Keywords: Virtual learning environment, blended learning, e-subject, multimedia study material.

Abstract: The present paper summarizes the authors' experience of application of distance aspects in the education. In

the article the main reasons why the authors use a virtual learning environment as an indivisible part of the

part-time study program, and as a support of the full-time study program at their university, are explained

there.

1 INTRODUCTION

Internet within a virtual learning environment is a

significant contribution to education and its role in

the education industry is growing constantly. This

environment enables teachers to influence and

enrich students learning in many ways.

Multimedia applications, an interactive system of

digital media, where multimedia information is

selected by the user himself according to his

individual needs, give us an excellent chance how to

support demonstrating, visualizing, describing and

testing the explained subject matter to be much

clearer and comprehensible. “Students need images

and visualization in addition to words. Science

learning is about creating images in mind, and

teaching should support such image formation.“

(Williams, 2005)

Students’ attitude to the university education can

be quite different. Some of them study continuously

as they used before. However, most students juggle

their studies together with other activities, even with

paid employment. Hence it isn’t easy for teachers to

persuade all students to study intensively for the

whole term. Nevertheless, they should try to do it

and support self-preparation of those students who

are willing to carry on studying in this way. Lessons

can be run more efficiently, like a discussion or

consultation, then. A virtual learning environment

can help us in this way very much as well.

In the article we introduce our experience in

using a virtual learning environment, namely the

professional virtual learning environment WebCT,

and explain the main reasons why we use it as an

indivisible part of the part-time study program and

as a support of the full-time study program at present

2 VIRTUAL LEARNING

ENVIRONMENT AND

BLENDED LEARNING

At our university we have been using the

professional virtual WebCT learning environment

not only for preparing and providing distance

courses for public within lifelong learning but we

have been using it above all as a support for teaching

subjects studied at our university both in full-time

and part-time study-programs.

WebCT, like all the other similar virtual

learning environments, offers tools enabling

planning and controlling studies, as well as

preparing and presenting study materials, and also

communication between teachers and their students

and among students themselves. It enables test

setting, receiving solutions, informing students about

evaluations of their work, monitoring students’

activities, checking their levels of knowledge,

manage the process of student’s agendas, etc. It

supports team work as well.

“Blended learning in simplest terms describes the

integration of face-to-face learning and teaching

with that provided through a networked computer

based medium. Crucial to the success of blended

learning is how the integration is designed and

implemented. The design of blended learning and

the balance between the on-line and face-to-face

495

Milková E. and Slabý A. (2007).

VIRTUAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENT - Challenge to Increase Teaching and Learning.

In Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies - Society, e-Business and e-Government /

e-Learning, pages 495-499

DOI: 10.5220/0001273604950499

 SciTePress

components will dependent on a number of factors

such as student numbers, academic discipline and

the physical resource, as well as the ability of using

the particular medium to enhance the learning and

teaching.” (Linsey and Edirisingha and Heaton-

Shrestha, 2005)

At our faculty the combined study-programs

prepared for part-time students operates by linking

distance studies provided through WebCT

environment with consultations at sessions with

teachers every fortnight. This means about three

face-to-face sessions for each subject within one

semester. The final credit test and exams take place

face to face at the faculty. Formerly, the part-time

students studied at home, using printed study

material only, and the face-to-face sessions served as

lectures. There was little time to discuss their newly-

acquired knowledge with the teacher. It had a

negative impact on results. Many students did not

complete their studies. At present, thanks to the

prepared e-learning courses in the WebCT system

for each subject, it is much easier for the teacher to

advise students on how to study.

The biggest advantages of such a prepared

virtual study environment for combined study-

programs are seen, above all, in the following

aspects:

 The prepared virtual learning environment

enables students to use, not only the

recommended literature, but also

supplementary material, such as electronic

texts containing actual new information in the

given academic discipline and multimedia

presentations and programs created for the

subject by the means of which the topic is

visualized. There are many kinds of such

multimedia materials e.g. small animation,

short presentation, large presentation,

multimedia program. We usually use the

multimedia applications created by our

students on a script given by the teacher with

regard to students needs. In this way authors

of multimedia study materials can help their

classmates to understand the issue better. They

create their multimedia programs and

presentations mostly either in the Borland

Delphi environment or in the Macromedia

Flash environment within optional projects

and/or thesis.

 Students are given detailed instructions not only

on when and where to study but also how to

test their levels of knowledge. “The feedback

provided through tests helped students to

recognize what they needed to know,

appreciate what they already knew and

understand, what they needed to do in order to

learn, and what they didn’t know.” (Black and

William, 1998) There are several options for

testing in the WebCT environment. Moreover

we prepare, with help of our students, various

other kinds of tests using multimedia

applications as well.

 Part-time students need to be in “touch” with

the teacher and the other students as well. In

the virtual learning environment there are

tools for communication that effectively

support consultations and discussions between

student and his/her teacher, among students

themselves and among given group of

students as well. In such a way

communication take place within the semester

at any time. Part-time students don’t feel

lonely in their study any more.

Communication tools not only help to develop

students’ knowledge but they also play very

important role from the social point of view.

Moreover, from discussions and personal

emails, teacher can gain a better grasp of

students thinking and needs than from face-to-

face sessions only.

 Thanks the above mentioned possibilities given

through prepared virtual environment, face-to-

face sessions do not serve as lectures any

more. They serve as seminars. Part-time

students have to be prepared for them and be

able to discus the topic with the teacher and

other students. In this way, students are forced

to study more regularly and systematically

than before. They can study as intensively and

effectively as if they were full-time students.

Final remark: Teachers and students at our faculty

fully appreciate the possibility of providing the

combine study-programs as blended learning, using

WebCT as its distance aspect. Nevertheless, teachers

never forget to recommend a printed textbook to

students as an indivisible component of their study.

Many of them prepare textbooks supplemented by

CD where the suitable multimedia applications are

found.

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3 VIRTUAL LEARNING

ENVIRONMENT AS A

SUPPORT OF THE FULL-TIME

FORM OF STUDY

Traditional teaching-methods influence distance

education and different experiences gained through

distance education can change our attitudes to the

teaching of a subject. Indeed, the undoubted

advantages of blended learning described above

were really big challenge for applying some

elements of distance study to the teaching of

subjects taught within the full-time study programs.

At present, in our faculty, most teachers use WebCT

to prepare their own e-learning courses to support

the study of full time students as well.

Used as a compliment to a subject, the biggest

advantages of such a prepared virtual study

environment are seen, above all, in the following

aspects:

 Students have all electronic study materials

assigned to the appropriate subject available

altogether in one environment together with

needed information.

 The relevant study material is accessible

whenever and wherever. In this way also

students staying abroad within the framework

of the Socrates Erasmus students exchange for

several months are able to follow the subject.

 When lessons are taught by more than one

teacher, all teachers can be included as

teaching assistants to the e-subject. Each of

them inserts settings of exercises and the

evaluation of credit tests for his/her students to

the WebCT environment. Thus the lecturer

(guarantor of the course and author of the e-

subject) has a clear survey of both the history

of lessons and results of all students.

 Students interested in the area explained within

a subject can find additional material in the

WebCT environment, and sources and

information outside the immediate framework

of the subject. Discussions on “a level” with

their teacher can start. This is also one of the

ways in which the teacher can train his

potential thesis writers.

 In many subjects, the inevitable outcome of

creating common projects is teamwork.

Virtual study environments are inherently

well-suited to this. Students can communicate

with the teacher and each other, and

discussions are accessible to members of the

team only. Even as geographically isolated

members of a virtual team, they can send

requests for advice and parts of project to the

teacher for oversight.

 Students greatly appreciate accessibility to self-

tests and quizzes with automatic checking and

to multimedia study materials visualizing the

explained matter.

 Students find also very useful the option called

Calendar, where they can see all the

information about important dates (written

credit tests, examination etc) in one

environment.

Final remarks: Obviously, printed textbooks are

an indivisible component of study materials

prepared for full-time students as well.

Unlike the virtual learning environment intended

for combined study-programs, communication is

usually less important in WebCT prepared for full-

time study-programs. Teachers allow their students

to use tools for communication but they do not

include themselves in it. Communication tools are

important only in the event that team work is

required.

In the following chapter let us give some

examples. We briefly introduce the virtual study

environments (a so-called “e-subjects”) prepared in

WebCT for two subjects, namely for the subject

Discrete Mathematics and the subject Algorithms on

Graphs. At the faculty, we use the e-subject concept

to distinguish between the subject itself and the

virtual study environment prepared for the subjectAt

our university we have been using the professional

virtual WebCT learning environment not only for

preparing and providing distance courses for public

within lifelong learning but we have been using it

above all as a support for teaching subjects studied

at our university both in full-time and part-time

study-programs.

3.1 A Case Study: e-Subject DIMA and

ALGRF

The subject Discrete Mathematics is a compulsory

subject taught in the fourth term. Its aim is to

develop and deepen students’ capacity for logical

thinking. Students gain a basic level of competence

in combinatorics, graph theory and graph

algorithms. Well-prepared students in the area of

graph theory and graph algorithms should be able to

describe various practical situations with the aid of

graphs, solve the given problem expressed by the

VIRTUAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENT - Challenge to Increase Teaching and Learning

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graph, and translate the gained solution back into the

initial situation.

The appropriate WebCT environment, the e-

subject DIMA, is divided into three main parts;

Content of the course, Support for study and

Verification of knowledge.

Electronic version of the textbook (Milková,

2001) prepared for the subject DIMA together with

content of lectures, setting of exercises, various self

tests and assignments is placed there.

Especially, in the e-subject DIMA we post the

syllabus of all lectures at the beginning of the term.

After each particular lecture, the following day, we

always post all of the prepared study materials used

during that lecture in the e-subject DIMA.

We also post the setting of exercises which will

be performed during the lessons in the following

week. It is considered as very useful. Students are

forced to prepare for the lessons and, as a result,

standards of tuition are much higher because the

lessons themselves are more time-efficient.

There are various self-tests and assignments for

self-preparation included in the e-subject DIMA.

Students can, but don’t have to, complete them

during the term. However, similar assignments occur

in the exam test. It is up to the students whether they

deal with these tasks and discuss them with their

teacher during the lessons.

In the e-subject DIMA, we also include study

materials marked as “optional” for students who are

particularly interested in the given topic.

Two large multimedia presentations

Combinatorics and Combinatorics as a Game, used

in the partial teaching of the area of combinatorics,

are placed there. The presentations were developed

within a diploma thesis in the Macromedia Director

environment. The presentation Combinatorics offers

students the possibility to revise the subject matter,

which has been explained, and to practice it through

examples. The presentation Combinatorics as a

Game contains a lot of animation which visualizes

more difficult combinatorial principles in an

amusing and understandable way. The first

mentioned presentation is compulsory and the

second is optional.

Probably the most important study material

placed in the e-subject DIMA is the illustrious

multimedia program Graphs prepared for the partial

teaching of graph theory and graph algorithms. It

was developed within a diploma thesis (Pozdílek,

2004) in the Borland Delphi environment. The

program is a substantial help to the teacher during

the lectures. The biggest advantage of the program,

as opposed to the presentations, is the fact that there

is the possibility to create an infinite number of

needed examples.

The program enables the teacher to explain a lot

of subject-matter within the area of graph theory and

serves as a helpful tool for visualization of various

graph algorithms using a colouring process on

graphs created within the program. All graphs which

we prepare and use during lectures are entered into

the e-subject DIMA. The possibility to open more

than one window is very helpful because it is much

easier to explain mutual relations among used

concepts.

There is also an option called Save Graph in bmp

format that enables easy insertion of needed graphs

(see Figure 1) into texts. In such a way teachers can

easy prepare tests. Students use it when they do their

assignments as well.

Figure 1: Sample of graph in bmp format.

The subject Discrete Mathematics is followed by

the optional subject Algorithms in Graphs. The aim

of this subject is to develop students’ ability to study

the specified topic of the graph theory and graph

algorithms independently and present the matter

comprehensibly to other students in seminars.

At the beginning of the term students are divided

to groups of three members and each group chooses

one topic of topics offered by the teacher. Then they

have three weeks to prepare their presentation and

speech. After this period the common seminars start.

During these three weeks communication in the

virtual environment WebCT prepared for the subject

Algorithms in Graphs (e-subject ALGRF) is very

valuable. Students communicate with the teacher

and each other, and there is also used the possibility

that discussions may be accessible, but limited to the

teacher and members of the group.

All presentations created by students in these

three weeks are saved in the e-subject ALGRF

before common seminars. In this way, the other

students are able to prepare themselves for

discussing of the topic with the speakers.

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4 RESULTS AND CONCLUSION

All teachers of our faculty involved in combined

study-programs are forced to provide their subjects

as blended learning, i.e. they have to prepare

distance part of the subject using WebCT. About

80% of educators teaching at our faulty prepare and

provide e-subjects for their subjects intended for the

full-time students. Most of them use the prepared

virtual study environment only as an optional

support of the subject. However about 30% of them

use the created e-subject as an indivisible part of

his/her subject. These teachers require students to

deliver assignments, projects, etc within the e-

subject. They support team work in their e-subjects.

There are also teachers using prepared e-subjects for

in-line testing of their students within the framework

of seminars and examinations.

The continuous quality evaluation of an e-

learning course is very important not only for the

teaching material itself, but also for the management

of the course. Our faculty has a long tradition of e-

learning utilization. Using results given in (Poulová

and Slabý, 2003) we recall some more general

perspectives related to this issue at the end of our

article.

Both teachers and students see the main

advantage of a virtual study environment in that the

relevant study material and all needed information

are accessible whenever and wherever.

From the students’ perspective, the big benefit is

the possibility to use multimedia material visualizing

the subject matter and to test their knowledge

through several kinds of self- tests.

From the teachers’ perspective, the major benefit

is the opportunity to change the materials very

quickly and with respect to the current situation.

We should also accent the fact that from the

teacher’s (respective teaching assistant’s) point of

view, the course can be much wider than from the

student’s viewpoint. Teachers can use “hidden

sections” of the course environment, like

repositories of additional exercises, databases of test

questions etc. Here he/she can save the supply of

useful materials. Such kinds of shared resources can

be found very useful, especially when several

teaching assistants teach the same subject.”

There are other possibilities as to how and why

to use a virtual learning environment. Some

challenges could be shared through digital libraries,

enabling teachers working at different universities to

choose and share study materials prepared for their

subject or related subjects.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This research has been partially supported by the

Research plan of the Czech Ministry of Education

No. MSM 184500002.

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