What do you regularly use the VLE for?

All the students acknowledged the use of the learning platform as a repository for course material considering it as a storage facility although not all courses had materials available which students found frustrating.
Materials mainly comprised of office documents such as WORD and POWERPOINT files with some links to external websites and resources.
In a few instances students were provided with multiple choice questions to practice and assess levels.
In some cases the learning platform was used to find out essay questions, learning outcomes and supporting materials including examples of previous students work.
There was also limited use of revision notes, past papers and solutions, ancillary notes, animations and some multimedia.
It was the general feeling that many functions of the learning platform are not used and there is little or no interactivity.

In what way does the VLE add value to your learning experience?

It’s really useful and allows you to work outside face to face class time.
The potential for adding value is recognised but students are disappointed in it’s limited use.
Students feel that the learning platform needs to be dynamic for students to feel it adds much value.

Are there elements of the VLE or functions that you do not like?

No test results or progress reports.
If discussions are started by students they are not answered by staff.
Resources can be very old and out of date which can mean that some info is wrong.
Can discourage students from attending college.
Flaky email system.
Concerns about security of personal information.
Inconsistency of use by lecturers - some use some don’t - very unsatisfactory and students find it frustrating that not all lecturers upload course resources.
Terminology is confusing so finding things can be difficult e.g. units are sometimes listed by number rather than topic which means it’s difficult to find stuff – you need to navigate to what you’re looking for and staff don’t always organise things in the same way - A search facility and bookmaking tool would be good.

Are there any aspects of your studies at the college not currently handled through the VLE that might benefit from being incorporated in the VLE?

There was unanimous support for results tracking with a visual representation of progress (e.g.a progress bar as units and assessments are completed). Students expected results to be available on the system.
The Learning Platform could be a way of integrating all channels like a portal i.e. Facebook feed, college website, external vendor materials.
A class related Blog was good and allowed students to contribute to class resources.
More self assessments / formative assessments would be good.
Checklists to ensure all work is completed.
Students also felt the following features would add significantly to their learning experience:
Access to further reading and opportunities through the learning platform for self directed studies.
Announcements with college information e.g. college open after period of closure.
Access to Library resources through the learning platform rather than going to a separate site.
Accessing the student drive out with the college would be good. Accessing in particular own materials from home a priority.

Are there aspects of technologies that you use for personal activities that you would like to see incorporated into the learning platform?

Students considered that Facebook is a more dynamic and widely used platform for student feedback to be gathered e.g. using polls to gauge opinion.
On the whole Facebook was considered a very powerful mechanism for dissemination of information and more likely to be the first port of call for many (but not all) students and probably more effective than the Learning Platform. There were differing opinions whether social media should be integrated into the Learning Platform.
Personal organisational tools e.g. calendar of assignments / task manager / alerts.
Ideally a system that can link or be exported into personal tools in use.
An opportunity at the start of a course for each student to choose their preferred method of communication for college matters i.e. email / text / announcement.
Relevant RSS feeds integrated into the LP would be desirable and add a dynamic element to the LP.
Some students would like to be able to customise and personalise the interface if possible e.g. change themes – add / hide elements. Other students preferred to keep the interface simple and uncluttered to preserve and differentiate between personal and college activities.
It was felt that users of social media have the capacity to differentiate between the different context of their social media use and behave appropriately.

Is support for the using the VLE adequate? If not - how could institutional support for using the VLE be improved?

Induction involved a basic introduction given by the lecturer.
One student overheard the protocol to login in the corridor and how change their password and had no induction but managed to use the system without further training.
Short video resources would be good.
Student logins take a while to organise. Generic ones were used at first that limited the use of the learning platform in the early stages of the course.
A temporary login to access to some information, resources and the Learning Platform prior to starting course would be helpful to orient students so they are ready to hit the ground running. It would also fill the vacuum between being offered a place on a course and actually starting which can be several months.

General comments

Consistent use of the learning platform for the course is critical.
Focus groups are a good way for student opinion to be heard. Polls or pop up questionnaires when logging in to the learning platform to engage with student opinion would be good.
Good to see some action based on student feedback but even better to see some decisions and solutions in place after consultation.
Regular review and evaluation of the LP is needed to determine how it evolves.
Course Expectations:
Students expected more visual and multimedia resources would be used.
Students expected links to extended reading and research.
Students expected as you progressed to higher levels that the level of use would increase and quality of the materials would get more sophisticated.
Students expected opportunities for self-assessment and practice.
Students expected to be able to track their progress and access assessment results