Introducing a VLE into campus-based undergraduate teaching: Staff perspectives on its impact on teaching

This paper discusses the impact of the introduction of a virtual learning environment (VLE) on teaching practices within a new university in the UK, and explores the factors that have encouraged or, conversely, discouraged, the adoption of the VLE by teaching staff, from the latter's perspective. It is based on findings from the analysis of qualitative interviews with 23 members of academic staff from across four subject areas at Kingston University (KU), conducted as part of a broader research project on the use of VLEs in teaching and learning at KU (2002-2005). It reports on the areas of teaching that have been most affected by the VLE; details the specific ways in which practice has been transformed by the VLE and describes the nature of the adjustments that staff have had to make; and specifies the factors that have encouraged the adoption of a technology such as a VLE as part of teaching on undergraduate courses.