Despite well-publicised reports of its demise, evidence emerging from the JISC Transforming Curriculum Delivery Programme projects across further and higher education suggests that the VLE (or adaptations of it) are very much at the forefront of curriculum innovation. Rather than being sidelined by 21st century technologies, does the VLE in fact play a key role in curriculum development? In short, is it time to rethink the role of the institutional VLE?

Based on published outcomes from a range of very different projects in FE colleges and universities (JISC 2010), the symposium will encourage delegates to ‘think differently’ about the institutional VLE, covering topics such as:

• Is the VLE simply one system among many for supporting and managing learning or should the VLE be positioned at the very heart of curriculum development?
• Can the VLE be made flexible enough to support individual needs? Do we need to look for alternatives in some contexts?
• Can the VLE be a tool for innovation? Is its current use limited by our perceptions of what a VLE can do?

Representatives of project teams that have focused on rethinking or reconfiguring their VLE will represent a wide spectrum of views. Arguments that the VLE is at the heart of institutional practice will be opposed by alternative approaches to supporting and managing student learning. In the process of presenting their case and answering questions from the floor, a panel of four representatives will outline attempts to develop the VLE in their own institution or department to achieve particular ends – for example, reducing costs and time spent on administrative tasks, improving the experience of remote learners, overcoming challenges of increased student numbers and poor engagement, and opening up new ways of delivering the curriculum. The session will be chaired to enable audience members to bring forward their own views on the future of the VLE.

Delegates will take away a short publication on outcomes from the JISC Transforming Curriculum Delivery through Technology Programme and will have the opportunity to engage with VLE-based innovations that may be applicable to their own context.