Path to blended Learning-Virtual Learning Environment

The flattening of the world has led to increased usage of technologies based on www . The field of higher education is no exception, the need was to create a distributed education system- "anytime anywhere anyplace". The advent of web 2.0 technologies has satiesfied the need of "global education marketplace" for professionals, corporations and educational institutes. The culmination of efforts in this area has led to development of Virtual learning Environment(VLE) -A virtual learning environment is designed information and social space.

"A virtual learning environment (VLE) is a software system designed to support teaching and learning in an educational setting, as distinct from a Managed Learning Environment, (MLE) where the focus is on management. A VLE will normally work over the Internet and provide a collection of tools such as those for assessment (particularly of types that can be marked automatically, such as multiple choice), communication, uploading of content, return of students' work, peer assessment, administration of student groups, collecting and organizing student grades, questionnaires, tracking tools, etc. New features in these systems include wikis, blogs, RSS and 3D virtual learning spaces.
While originally created for distance education, VLEs are now most often used to supplement traditional face to face classroom activities, commonly known as Blended Learning. These systems usually run on servers, to serve the course to students Multimedia and/or web pages." ---- wikipedia

While VLE was initially used for distant learning now it has expanded its scope to supplement face-2-face classroom-Blended Learning.