The INSPIRAL Final Report noted that campus based face-to-face teaching would need to apply digital libraries and VLEs in such a way that they would enhance teaching and that distance learning would need to be supported in ways that would not disadvantage the distance students. The linking of digital libraries with VLEs is central to that vision and some projects are finding that the different ways distance and place-based students relate to VLEs affects the way in which resources are provided.
Assumptions cannot be made about the willingness of students to engage with VLEs and the digital resources embedded within them. During our evaluation of the DiVLE projects we found evidence that place-based students are less likely than distance learners to want to do this. It has also emerged that a minority of students have difficulty adapting to VLE environments, or may be resistant to certain features of them. Project outputs may need to be adaptable to a variety of teaching contexts, therefore, and not just to embedding within a VLE.
We found that there was a complex mix between:
Inspiral : The Inspiral site contains a Final Report and useful documents, Web resources and a bibliography.
JISC MLE activities : The JISC site contains links to a variety of activities concerning strategic issues affecting the use of MLEs.
Library Services For Distance Learning: The Fourth Bibliography. Alexander. L. Slade This is a useful and recently updated biblography covering this area.