Developing ICT students’ practical skills through work in virtual learning environments: teachers’ expectations and actual experience

Abstract

The recent technological developments have created a qualitatively new virtual communication medium in the hope that it will be effectively used in distance learning/teaching. In this article, we describe the reflections of teachers, communicating with students in a virtual learning environment (VLE) in a distance learning course. Representatives professional ICT teachers, participated in this research. The aim of this research: compare the theoretical expectations related to VLE, and the ICT teachers’ experience in building practical skills via work in a VLE. Related objectives: to reveal the expectations related to the employment of the VLE based on the analysis of the scientific literature; to discuss the peculiarities of the ICT studies; to summarise the experiences of the teachers’ work in VLE on the basis of qualitative study. The methodology applied for this research includes the following methods: scientific literature analysis, interview, descriptive content analysis of the responses to the open-ended questions.