Virtual Learning Environments as a Supplement to Traditional Teaching

Many factors influence teaching nowadays. Numbers of students are increasing, some students pay for studies and require more flexible teaching, more students have access to Internet, the learning material is changing rapidly (especially of subjects, related to information technologies), publishing industry is slow and expensive. All that stimulates usage of modern technologies in education. Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) is one of the forms of e-learning. They open new ways of teaching and communication such as management of online learning, course delivery mechanism, communication and assessment tools, student tracking, access to electronic resources, etc. All these means correspond to the needs of contemporary teachers and students. VLEs have primarily been used for distance education but they are being used increasingly as supplement of traditional classroom based education. The author is interested in this latter aspect of VLEs. The paper briefly reviews main types of Virtual Learning Environments and analyses the use of VLEs in Lithuania. The results of the investigation of two different learning environments – traditional (Web CT) and collaborative (FLE3) at the Vilnius Pedagogical University are also discussed in the article.