Investigation and Prototype Design of Collaborative Virtual Learning Enivronments

Virtual learning environments (VLEs) are online learning systems that are used to enhance a student's learning experience by providing a set of teaching, learning and communication tools. The current VLEs, however, are not fully utilised or exploited to support effective collaborative learning. This paper investigates how to build effective online collaborative virtual learning environments, by exploring the requirements of VLEs from personal users. A prototype is then created to show how the designs of current VLEs can be improved to provide the essential functionalities and ease of use.