E-learning in higher education:virtual platforms

Abstract

The University of Castilla-La Mancha has decided to implement the two tools which are considered to be the most widely-used, the most functional, the easiest and most standard, and the most widely-supported in all the world: WebCT and Moodle. Against this backdrop, "Virtual Campus" has emerged: www.campusvirtual.ulcm.es. This paper is dedicated to the analysis of said tool as a primary mode of e-learning expansion in the university environment. Defined as an entity which is physical, virtual, administrative, technological and educational, it can be used to carry out standard educational university activities in accordance with the guidelines set out by the new European Space for Higher Education. The continual effort to use new technologies throughout the world of higher education has led to the development of a variety of informational tools which make it possible to support traditional education through use of the Internet. A great many diverse applications are available, both technologically and in the form of programs, which satisfy the majority of virtual education needs. New needs continue to present themselves, not only with regard to the exchange of information and documents, but the complete and integrated management of teaching which is carried out using virtual environments and the Internet: e-learning. The characteristics of the ICTs encourage the use of more constructionist methodologies based on the greater autonomy of the students in their work and on the supervisory role of the teaching staff. These new technologies mean that new types of learning and new learning environments can develop that facilitate the achievement of the previous objectives. In this respect, e-learning environments have proliferated in recent years, and they have evolved significantly. It seems then that the integration of ICTs in university education is essential, and to a certain extent, inevitable. But these technologies should only be adopted after a carefully considered process. There should not, according to the report Studies in the Context of the E-learning Initiative Virtual Models of European Universities (2004), be a radical break with the traditional model that risks confusing the agents involved (students and teaching staff). These reflections, and the strong involvement of the University of Castilla-la Mancha (where the authors teach) in the use of ICTs and integration into the ESHE, have led the teaching staff there to use the Campus Virtual platform (https://campusvirtual. uclm.es) to offer courses in the Business Administration and Management degree in the Social Sciences Faculty at Cuenca. The current work briefly introduces the Campus Virtual tool, and describes how it is used in teaching courses. The group of Spanish universities known as G-9 is a non-profit association bringing together nine public universities that are the only public universities in their respective Autonomous Regions (Castilla-La Mancha, Extremadura, Oviedo, Cantabria, Pais Vasco, Publica de Navarra, Zaragoza, La Rioja and Hies Balears) in order to foster their academic activities. The Campus Virtual (i.e., "Virtual Campus") has two applications. The first is the G-9 Shared Virtual Campus (Campus Virtual Compartido, CVC), which the universities use to share courses online. In the past academic year 2005/2006 more than 3,500 students enrolled on one of the 69 courses offered by this project (the majority "de libre configuration", i.e., courses that are not necessarily on the syllabus of the particular qualification being studied). This CVC is complemented by the Profesores Invitados por Red (Invited Lecturers Online) project, whereby students can attend a lecture given by an academic from another university by video-conference in order to complement the material given by their official course lecturer. In this way, any student can, from any computer with an internet link, attend a course offered by any of the nine participating universities, and do so entirely online. A second application of Campus Virtual is to virtualise official courses in the existing syllabuses of each participating university. This option is the object of study of the current work, although the mechanism is similar to the CVC. Thus, teaching staff can complement the traditional, official education by using the Campus Virtual platform. All members of the university community have access to Campus Virtual, specifically the following groups: students, teaching and research staff, and administration and services staff. The characteristics, functions available and permissions of each group differ depending on the course and on the individual's role in the course. All students are given a password when they enrol on any official course at the University of Castilla-La Mancha, giving them access to all the course material as their lecturers virtualise it. Other students can only access the material that is available in the permanent virtual spaces. The final objective of all e-learning programmes should be that the students learn effectively, for which they must use the tool correctly and the technical system must be adequate. Looking at the Campus Virtual tool more specifically, the following evaluation is based on the authors' experience of teaching their subjects over the past three years. The main gains for both students and teaching staff are as follows: Register and control of students improves. Student-lecturer communication improves. The students are encouraged to interrelate with their classmates, using the communication tools to help each other. Both teaching staff and students have quicker and more effective access to information. Improves students' expectations about their results. Considerably superior to the tool previously used by the University (Red-C@mpus). © 2008 IADIS.