Experiencies and Trends in Affordances of University Virtual Campuses

Abstract

The fact that Learning Management Systems (LMS) were born in 1995 and became widely used in 2011 is commonly accepted with little variation. However, as we have often mentioned, LMS’ have seldom been treated in their theoretical and functional aspects from just an instructional or interdisciplinary point of view. The centre of the analysis has usually been based on technological aspects, but not even those cases deal with technological affordances from an educational perspective. Neither issues related to teaching, learning or methodologies for evaluation are dealt, nor issues related to other variables of instructional design. Computer magazines often make only references to generic issues and do not include references to social web environments or their integration either. There is, thus, a key question at present –that of the methodological innovation implied by LMS, but not always enforced. This lack of treatment coincides with the lack of reference to social web, which makes sense because of its being a novelty and because of the caution with which it is being observed. It also coincides with the fact that LMS have become environments where conventional educational management activity takes place, instead of actual educational activity. The moment has come then, to carry out a methodological revision and to accept the fact that LMS have become the new learning environments for Higher Education thanks to the pedagogic potential of the social web: the social learning management systems. This monographic issue offers the chance to consider and analyse two elements, among others, closely related to learning and teaching in Higher Education: the integration of the social web, and the analysis of new educational affordances.