Digital Learning Environment 1.1-1.3

What is a Digital Learning Environment?

A digital learning environment is an online shared resource area for both teachers and students to use by allowing teachers a place to deliver learning material, and students to read and complete this. This provides many tools for use by teachers with the aim of supporting their students. Listed are some of the different tools offered by different digital learning environments:

• Teachers are able to upload work for students to complete themselves in their own time. They can also upload and attach any notes or support material in which students can use to assist them when completing work.
• Teachers are able to set deadlines for the students to have completed the work by.
• Should teachers include quizzes or tests in the work to be completed by students, then they can see which students have completed the quiz and which answers they chose. Teachers could then analyse which question to student(s) struggled on and tailor their learning more towards this.
• Most digital learning environments offer forums or group chats where students and teachers are able to discuss any issues with their work, or any suggestions or feedback they have.
• Having forums also allows for peer to peer feedback on any work they've completed.

Advantages and disadvantages of using a Digital Learning Environment

Digital Learning Environments of course have their advantages and disadvantages of using them, some of which I've listed below:

Advantages	Disadvantages
More accessible – Access work from anywhere, anytime.	Internet access – In order to access the DLE you will need a connection to the internet, which some   students may not have, or maybe unavailable in their current location.
More independent Learning – Less class room based work.	Easily distracted – Allowing students to complete work in their own time leaves them open to being distracted and end up not completing their work.
Up-to-date content – More recent content compared to a book for example. This then benefits students learning as they aren’t learning things which maybe outdated.	Trust – Tied in with the point above, teachers need to be able to trust teachers to complete their   work to a good standard and on time.
Safe – Only those with permission will have access to the work, stopping those who shouldn’t be on a course access material they don’t need to.	Social – DLEs may prevent people from attending school as they feel they can do all the work at home, and so they lose out on the social aspect of meeting people.
Easier & less hassle – Compared to carrying a book around for example, e-learning packages are less hassle.	Understanding – Those using the DLE will need to know how to use it. This may require training for teachers.
Tailored – E-Learning packages can be tailored more towards an individual or group of students compared to a book for instance.	Failures – IT can fail, and this can become a real issue particularly for schools and colleges which are heavily reliant on a DLE
Saves live updates – This makes it harder to accidentally lose any work, for example, by being disconnected from the internet.	No class engagement – With students being able to complete work in their own time at home, they begin to lose out on engaging with other students and their tutors.
Plagiarism check – Some DLE software have their own plagiarism checks which checks students work against work on the internet in order to determine if they’ve copied anything from there.	Server – If the server hosting the DLE goes down for some reason, then no one will have access until it’s restored.
Mobile apps – Can be used to keep everyone connected while out and about.	Compatibility – Some formats may not work with Moodle. For instance, there have been a few issues with students trying to upload documents in formats which aren’t compatible and so some issues have been created there.
Useful during time-off – During school breaks such as Christmas, or Easter when students are off school, they can still catch-up on any work they haven’t completed.	Cost – Running and maintaining a server in which Moodle can run on is a costly
Available 24/7 – Anyone can access the software from anywhere, anytime 365 days per year.	Reliant On The Tutor – The content which is uploaded onto a DLE is reliant on what the teacher is capable of creating, so a tutor lacking any good IT knowledge they may just upload all Word documents, which won’t benefit students.
Edit Work Wherever – Students and teachers are able to edit their work wherever they are, useful for when they’re on holiday or off sick.	Common Issues – There are some common issues which everyone using a DLE may face. For example, students not being able to log in or not being enrolled onto a course are two common issues we face.
Allows Teachers To Get More Creative – Moodle and most other DLEs offers multiple ways in which to include interactive elements for students to engage in, and it’s all controlled by the tutor.
Disabilities – Most DLEs have tools in which to help those with disabilities.

Examples of a Digital Learning Environment

There are some Digital Learning Environments which are free to use, although these typically require you to have it running on a server of your own, and to also manage the software yourself, so any problems you come across, you have to solve - Although I'm sure there are forums dedicated to helping.

Alternatively, there are companies which will host and provide a Digital Learning Environment for you at a cost. Usually the cost depends upon several factors, such as support tools, server space and bandwidth. Typically the provider also offer support training to help teachers use the software and pass those skills onto their students.  

Free	Payable
Teach Free For Schools	Turn It In
Simple VLE	School Spider
MyWebSchool – An adaptation of Moodle.	Frog Education
	It’s Learning

The software for Moodle is completely free, but it will cost to rent or buy your own server in which to run it, this also applies to MyWebSchool.

How Moodle differs from other DLEs

There are many differences between Moodle and other Digital Learning Environments, some of which I've listed below: 

• Open Source - The software for Moodle is open source, which means that the coding for it can be accessed and seen by anyone, on top of this, it can also be edited by anyone. This means that it's entirely customisable and can be directly set-up to suit you or your students, assuming you know how to program it, the only downfall to this.
• Set Roles - Admin, Course Leader, Student etc. roles can all be set and assigned to different people. With each of these different roles will offer different positions. For example, an Admin will be able to see and edit everything within that course area, whereas a student will only be able to access some of the content in which they've been given permission. With this feature, only the right people have access to the stuff they need and cannot access things they shouldn't.
• Interactivity - Teachers are able to create interactive content, for their students which can be stored and used directly on Moodle. This helps keep the user/ listener engaged for longer, increasing the chances of them learning and pay For instance, you can include a quiz at the end of your learning package, in which feedback is reported back to the teacher for review. I'll explain more on this later.
• Accessible - Moodle can be accessed on any device such as Windows, Mac, phone or tablet. This is great as not every student will have the same device, for instance, if Moodle only worked on Windows, any students using Macs wouldn't be able to access Moodle making them unable to complete any set work.
• Multiple Courses - Admins are able to set-up multiple courses which run through-out the college. This also allows for permissions to be set, so only those on a set course can access that work. It's also a good way to keep the Moodle organised.
• Store Resources - Teachers are able to store any resource/ support material such as notes on Moodle which students can access to also help with their work.
• Access Reports/ Feedback - Feedback on any quizzes within a Captivate project for example is also stored on Moodle for teachers to see and analyse what a student is doing well and where they're struggling. They can then use this to further help their education by focusing on what a student cannot do well and improve upon it.
• Remind Students - Reminders are able to be set which remind students of any upcoming deadlines to help ensure they complete their work on time. These reminders can also be set onto mobile devices.
• User Friendly - Moodle is very to easy to use and to some degree self explanatory, which is helpful for those less knowledgeable about IT in general.