An evaluation of Virtual Learning Environment readiness in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs)

Abstract

Virtual Learning Environments (VLE) provide online interactions of various kinds which can take place between learners and tutors, including online learning when the students and lecturers are in the different places but same time. There are many universities which did not establish VLE in their educational institution. The universities which did not implement VLE system are facing some problems in their day to day teaching environment. Face to face education increase contact time with learners, it is difficult for the students in face to face learning to get more time to think about their discussion’s response, this lead problem for student’s contribution. In this paper we propose a model of VLE readiness in higher education institutions with four hypotheses, and we divided the model into two main categories: (a) hypotheses that have positively related to VLE readiness such as optimism and innovativeness, (b) hypothesis which have negatively related to VLE readiness in higher education such as discomfort and insecurity. Technology Readiness Index (TRI) is the most compatibility model to be used as research model in this paper. Our study presents an evaluation of VLE implementation in higher education institutions; the researcher employed a three-stage method to extract, analyze and report the literature-based findings the result obtained from the study matches the findings of the research that investigates the VLE readiness in higher education, thus improving the design of a VLE for further improvement. The study finds that implementing Virtual learning environment leads to better leaning performance.