Virtual Learning Environments: Setting the Scene Dr Alicia Wise Chief Executive Publishers Licensing Society

Method Interviews during March and April 2005 with c. 20 e-learning practitioners, librarians, publishers, VLE vendors, and policy makers in the UK. Questions: what sort of content could be in virtual learning environments, at what level of granularity, and how might it get there? 

Two recent announcements… HEFCE will inject £41 million to help embed e-learning in universities in the next ten years. NSF will provide $20 million annually for innovation in the creation and management of digital resources and $40 million annually for transformative change to infrastructure and practice.

VLEs in the UK: strategic context The challenge of widening, deepening, and broadening participation in education. Changing expectations of students about how they will learn. For information professionals this strategic context raises many challenges – including many specifically related to the use of “library” and “published” content in VLEs.

Stakeholder disconnects Very different views about the value of having journal and book content in VLEs Different views about whose job it is (if anybody’s) to ensure that journal and book content is in the VLE An array of barriers to incorporating journal and book content into VLEs.

Barriers Awareness Business Models Copyright Formats Granularity Standards Timing

Connecting the dots… Contextualise content intended for use in (e)learning. Publishers could helpfully clarify the role(s) that they intend to fill in e-learning Librarians could helpfully clarify all the institutional strategies that content is provided to meet, and work with publishers in partnership to achieve these objectives Collaboration between Librarians and Publishers is vital to improve the perceived value of text, and the information professions, in facilitating e-learning