The Virtual Learning Environment is dead! Long live the Virtual Learning Environment!

One thing that my employers pride themselves on is their commitment to the use of IT for teaching and learning. They make great play of its use in their publicity material ... and when it works it is an extremely useful tool. The only problem is that at the moment, none of the students can use it!

Over the summer the management of our VLE (Virtual learning Environment) seems to have moved, and part of this move has resulted in a change in the way that students can log on. Previously they used their individual data number as their identity and their full postcode as their password. I understand that this has been deemed not to be secure enough, and so all the students will have to be issued with new identities and passwords; the only problem is that this has not – as yet – been done. The result is that teachers like me who have large banks of resources available on the VLE for their students to use, are having to print copies of the materials so that they can be handed out. This is not only very wasteful in terms of time and paper; it will also make it difficult for some students to do self-supported study.

We have no idea when the new identities and passwords will be issued, so I will have to divert some of the limited time I have set aside to do modelling and painting – and wargaming – so that I can prepare printed versions of the materials that are already available on the VLE.

The Virtual Learning Environment is dead! Long live the Virtual Learning Environment!