Online and virtual education is a new world of education.
In our world affected by the pandemic, virtual learning environments (VLEs) are irreversibly shaping the ways of university learning and teaching. VLE has become increasingly popular as universities around the world recognize its advantages in online teaching/learning. The online environment must respond to technological innovations and continue to evolve rapidly. It is clearly an effort that is never complete and where change is a constant.
How can we make education better?
People are actually thinking about designing courses in a new way. They are not doing this because of the opportunity to redesign and rethink the concept of what a university can and should offer. They are designing courses in a new way because the new medium forces them to do so. Nevertheless, we suddenly have the opportunity to ask: What exactly should the offerings of a university be? What should a course be? Should there be courses at all?
Web courses are basically parodies of existing courses. They have what the real courses have, only less. No real interaction with faculty, no real doing, no real excitement. But, this state of affairs will not continue for long. In a competitive market, the web will open up competition in university education (and later on in secondary education) in a way that few have imagined. Web courses will undergo a transformation over time and that transformation will begin to change education (and perhaps society itself) forever.
The air flight simulator is a very good piece of educational software; there is no better way to learn to fly that isn't dangerous. Learning by doing is a practical reality given good simulations. The problem is both to build those simulations and to reinvent a curriculum based upon this new technology and the idea of learning by doing.
