An investigation of the effectiveness of virtual learning environment implementation in primary education

Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs), understood here as online systems supporting interactions between and amongst learners and teachers as well as access to resources and activities, have long been held to provide a range of benefits in further and higher education. For 2008, UK Government policy is far all pupils to have access to an online learning space, for many provided through a learning platform such as a VLE. This technology is presently little used in primary education and there are few objective case studies evaluating the appropriateness and effectiveness of VLEs in this context. The author has addressed potential impact of VLEs on school effectiveness through three interrelated areas. The contribution of VLEs to institutional knowledge management is considered. Knowledge management has received little attention in education, and a small scale, self-selecting sample online survey was used to identify the contribution of VLEs to this area. Responses confirmed little use of knowledge management in schools, and mixed use of VLE tools to codify teachers tacit knowledge; VLEs were however used to share data, information and resources within the school, and supported a culture of collaboration within, and in some cases beyond, the school, such a culture being important for VLE effectiveness in this area. Schools rarely analysed VLE data to support decision making. The other two areas were addressed through a small scale action research project, introducing the Moodle open source VLE to support the Year 5 and Year 6 mathematics curriculum at the author's school. Evidence from a review of the relevant literature suggested that VLEs were particularly supportive of social constructivist pedagogy, and the author used a variety of qualitative and quantitative techniques, including the COLLES survey instrument, to identify the An investigation of the effectiveness of VLE implementation in primary education Miles Berry 2 extent to which introducing the VLE had promoted this approach to learning amongst the pilot study cohorts. Within this particular context, there did seem evidence that the VLE had promoted knowledge construction amongst pupils, an awareness of multiple perspectives, stronger sense of ownership and voice, and a greater sense of learning as a social experience. Pupils seemed to be more aware of their development as learners and coped well with multiple modes of representation. They perceived that computer-based activities were more relevant. By keeping the curriculum and testing regimes unchanged from previous years, the author was able to use a quasi-experimental method to …