Another thought springs to find, we have a diverse student body, let’s ask the learners what they really value and what matters to them in their learning journey at this point in their lives.
With a plethora range of programmes of study how can ‘one design (VLE) fit all’, how creative or allowing us to be creative are our current VLE offerings for curriculum online design as creators as ‘teachers’ and ‘students’. Tech integrations in the VLE over time have further bound us to processes rooting us deeper to the VLE and increasingly adding to the extensive VLE ingredient list. This made me think about how we learned without the VLE! (showing my age, finishing uni in 1994). Remember living in the library and doing lots of reading!! Don’t recall many moments of group collaborations only that relating to the course therefore if assessed we just got on with it! Learning was one part of the journey of who/how I was at that time, still discovering and developing where my interests lie. Learning never stops just the platform and getting onto to the next train and station in life :]

Having two sons at secondary level I witness how technology is increasingly assumed to be on hand and available and that which they are exposed to as part of expected routine, from home work calendar online to achievement points, to do list etc. on an individual level. I love listening to their daily musings from school from what they find boring to what they find engaging and enjoyable, from when the honeymoon period of entering the new term and the hustle of settling in settles, then the momentum of discovery seems to plateau. One thing I note they enjoy learning more when it’s interactive and visual in context, therefore whether a physical or virtual learning environment what I would like to know is what helps us to learn and found various useful reading from this ‘Students learn best when’ and this ’reconsolidate learning by concept mapping’.
learning.http://thinkeracademy.com/3-ways-concept-maps-help-you-learn/

https://learningshore.edublogs.org/2011/05/02/students-learn-best-when/