BENVIC Project ― Benchmarking of Virtual Campuses A Methodology and Quality Standards to Evaluate Learning Virtual Environments and Platforms

摘要

In recent years, those of us who have dedicated ourselves to non-presential education have seen how, with technology at the service of educational objectives, the learning conditions, as well the results, have improved in many cases. Technological media, integrated into a particular platform, make the interaction and the adaptation possible to individual learning rhythms, allowing to generate, in an almost real way, those adapted situations on which the student may act. Furthermore, communication and information technologies facilitate immediate access to databases, reference materials and different resources, being adapted to the interests of those who learn Many of these resources, through the links offered, favour multiple relations and a much more elaborated and specific thought. Many universities have begun to understand the advantages of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), and higher distance learning centres are beginning to take advantage of them. This tendency is quickly becoming general, and the effort to develop the concept of the virtual learning environment ― in particular on the basis of the possibilities web environments offer to the establishment of teaching-learning relations ― has represented a qualitative change. Due to this growing interest three European universities, three European research institutes, the Europace 2000 organisation, and the Association of European University Rectors, have joined together to present the Benvic project within the SOCRATES programme of the European Commission.