8 Engagement with virtual learning environments : a case study across faculties

The Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) at the University of Hertfordshire (UH) not only supports institutional and national strategies in learning and teaching, but represents a significant investment in capital. Studies show that VLEs offer a variety of pedagogical benefits and usage of such systems can be effectively measured through the analysis of a system’s log files. However, although the increase in engagement with the VLE at UH as a whole has been considerable over recent years, there appears to be a wide variation in engagement across faculties, suggesting that tutors of some faculties could benefit from increased support to improve engagement. For example, during each of the academic years under study, the range of student engagement between two particular faculties differed by at least 290%. Having identified faculties that show consistently low VLE engagement, we need to ask why this is, and ask whether there needs to be further investigation into the reasons behind this disparity.