In his article Learner and activity focused VLEs?, Derek Morrison outlined what are, in his opinion, some of the key ingredients necessary in virtual learning environments which claim to be 'student-centred'. If we apply the criteria in Derek's article, it seems clear that many VLEs have a long way to go before they merit their 'student-centredness' claims. Let's consider the example of what VLE's do with online discussions. Whilst the majority of VLEs employ communication and collaboration tools of some description it's vital that this functionality is flexible enough to support opportunities for the knowledge construction, reflection, and information sharing that is so central to the provision of a student-focussed environment.
What then of VLEs which value student contributions so much that they don't retain discussion contributions when a student graduates and is subsequently removed from the system? What then of VLEs which provide no easy way of archiving student contributions for later use, perhaps by future cohorts or examiners? Where is the student-centredness in a perspective which doesn't seem to recognise online discussions may be the primary vehicle for student generated content?
So what do our putative 'student-centred' VLEs do to our valued student discussion contributions when we upgrade to the latest versions of the software? Does it carry them forward to the new version … or does it tidy things up by deleting them? Let's imagine the furore if on updating to the latest version of a VLE all tutor-generated content and contributions were lost. So why is this apparently all right for some VLEs to do this with student content?
Some of the commercial vendors in particular need to reflect on their claims to be student-centred. For example, to suggest that tutors copy and paste discussion contributions into Word documents in order to retain them is hardly reassuring. If people cannot use their VLE, safe in the knowledge that that all content is valued and treated equally, then I suspect that vendors will soon begin to regret their oversight.
