Abstract :
Teaching and learning in virtual learning environments (VLEs) are relatively new phenomena and therefore pedagogies for these purposes are still in the early development and experimental stages and are either non-existent or have not reached maturity as yet. In traditional classroom settings, the teacher not only presents the new knowledge to the students, he or she chooses strategies to effectively transfer this knowledge, provides a time schedule, the necessary tests for assessment and continuous evaluation and to some extent the motivation necessary to complete the course. In VLEs and especially in the context of life long learning these support elements are often missing and learners are required to deal with these issues by themselves. We propose interactive graphical tools that help the learners gain metacognitive awareness and facilitate goal setting, time management, planning, self motivation, self assessment and progress tracking. In order to allow interoperability between platforms, current standards in the field have been accounted for
Keywords :
computer aided instruction; continuing professional development; educational administrative data processing; educational aids; educational courses; knowledge management; teaching; virtual reality; e-learning; interoperability; knowledge transfer; life long learning; metacognitive awareness; self-evaluation graphical tools; teaching; virtual learning environments; Automatic testing; Computer science; Continuing professional development; Education; Electronic learning; Environmental management; Feedback; Humans; Information processing; Interactive systems; Graphical Interactive Tools; Metacognition; Self Evaluation; Standards; Virtual Learning Environments;