An Overview of Virtual Learning Environments in the Asia-Pacific: Provisos, Issues, and Tensions

Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) have increasingly gained momentum in the Asia-Pacific region for the past decade. The aim of this chapter is to provide the reader with a range of issues, examples, and initiatives from this region on perspectives and progress made in VLEs through Information Technology (IT). The countries represented in this chapter on VLEs include Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, Korea, Japan, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand.

One unique perspective in the Asia-Pacific region is the localized emphasis of flexible learning in Australia and New Zealand. Even though the idea of making learning more flexible goes beyond the employment of IT in education, often, it involves technology-based solutions such as the internet. Some universities have even set up flexible learning centers to promote this philosophy. The development of flexible learning in these two countries has been around since the early 1990s. Many of the experiences that they have gained in this area can be shared with the international community.

Increasingly the countries represented within this region have been witnessing a surge with VLEs with pedagogies inherent from the West. Tensions such as learning epistemologies, cultural and language differences, ease of access and effectiveness toward learning, and other tensions are becoming evident. On the other hand, as VLEs mature, we gradually witness tensions which used to be evident become less of an issue, for example, the gradual diminishing of virtual versus real-life or face-to-face presences.