Designing Virtual Learning Centers

Virtual universities and work-place virtual institutes are seen, more and more, as a solution to the huge education demand of the knowledge society. I will limit my subject here to the design of Virtual Learning Centers, seen as the pedagogical heart of a virtual educational institution. This is where courses or learning events are designed, constructed and delivered using the Internet and its many communication possibilities. Many models are available for these learning events. High-tech classrooms, distributed classrooms, multimedia individual instruction, on-line teaching, communities of practice and performance support systems, are now available delivery models. They can be integrated in the same course or in different courses in a flexible, open and inter-operable way within a training organization. We will compare the main features of these models and present a computer-based architecture that can support them in an integrated way. The choice of a certain combination of delivery models is determined by decisions based on instructional models and strategies. Such strategies have major consequences on the selection of resources for information processing, collaboration, assistance and management of the learning activities. We will present here a general strategy and some aspects of a method for the instructional engineering of distributed learning system.