These platforms contain a huge amount of education-related data, including student record information, learning resources, assignments, module pages, and more. As a result, they require administrators to keep this record organised and manageable. VLE Administrators can be a fairly junior role, but many professions work to a more senior level through enhancing their technical responsibilities or by becoming more of a VLE Manager or Systems Lead.

VLE Administrators have very varied responsibilities, but these professionals can expect to manage the day-to-day tasks of the system, enrol users, manage the upload of content, troubleshoot technical issues, and support the overall management of learning resources from staff for students. Administrators can also restrict features and functionalities, as well as provide support on the helpdesk when needed. There are a lot of crossovers between this role and the role of a Learning Technologist, though the latter can generally have more training and learning support responsibilities towards staff and students.

In terms of progression, many junior digital learning professionals begin their careers in this kind of role and will either work up towards a more technical level, or move into roles with transferable skills such as a Learning Technologist, TEL Officer, and eventually Learning Technology Manager. The progression routes will vary depending on whether the individual is looking for a more technical, coding-focused role to support the wider IT functions of the VLE. Or, if they’re looking to have wider learning technology responsibilities or even more content and training. Either way, VLE Administration can be an excellent introductory role into the digital learning careers space. Administrators can even remain in this same role-type throughout their career, particularly in larger organisation’s where there are thousands of users that require help and support.

A good way to get into this role is either by starting as a VLE Administrative Assistant, where you would generally work below or alongside a more experienced, senior administrator and shadowing their work. At more of a junior level, universities offer student roles or internships on a part time basis whereby students looking to take on a role alongside their studies are able to support others students and staff on the learning system in place. These roles can either be called Learning Support Officers, Junior Learning Technologists, or Junior VLE Administrators. Another option can be to transition away from a traditional Learning Technologist role with a view to taking on more platform focused responsibilities.

Overall, VLE Administrators are an important, central role which supports the operation and management of learning materials and resources for up to thousands of individuals. They also offer a breadth of transferable skills which can allow professionals to ease into a transition elsewhere in the digital learning professional space.

If you are looking for a role as a VLE Administrator – Get in touch! 

Alternative names

There are many different names or terms used for a VLE, some organisations call it a Learning Management System or Platform or LMS for short, and some call it a Course Management System (CMS), or an Online Learning System.

What it does

A VLE is a key component of any educational organisation, as this is where online learning is stored. Students and teachers create personal profiles to log in to and access the learning material via their computer/laptop or mobile device.

As well as housing learning content, the VLE will manage each student’s learning records, track completed modules and highlight outstanding modules. In addition to core learning, VLEs offer extra online learning modules for students to upskill and further their education.

A VLE offers a secure platform for educators to create lesson plans, administrate curriculums, issue assessments and communicate with students. It also grants educators visibility of each student’s engagement, to monitor performance and flag any areas of improvement.

Since digital and remote learning have become readily available, features such as videos of face-to-face sessions, tutorials and eLearning modules offer flexibility for students to review and recap any modules.

Most VLEs offer tailored functionalities enabling an organisation to customise features for their needs. Such as videos, images, languages and other settings to enhance the student’s experience.

Different VLEs

There are multiple VLEs available on the market, and although most have the same outcome, some offer slightly different functions. In our experience, the most common VLEs used within the Education sector are Moodle, Blackboard, Canvas and Brightspace.

Who uses

Most organisations have some form of Learning Platform. VLEs can be used for corporate training programmes, and organisations within the Education sector such as Universities, Colleges, Schools and Associations typically work with a tailored VLE.

VLEs can be used to track overall learning output, organisations can extract data for learning performance statistics or ROI.

Roles associated with a VLE

A successful VLE requires input from various professionals, to ensure the system is optimised and managed correctly. Some of the roles associated with managing a VLE include.

VLE Support – To manage and support users accessing the online activities and assessment, whilst handling user queries.

Learning Technologist – Efficiently upload the learning content to the VLE, while developing and maintaining innovative solutions for the technology-enhanced learning.

Back-End Developer – Configure everything technical behind the scenes, to ensure the VLE is functional and accessible.

Trainers – Training staff host workshops to introduce staff to the learning system.

Virtual Learning Environments are a fantastic way for organisations to keep educational settings on track and manage a wide range of learning, outputs and data to ensure the smooth day-to-day running of the organisation. Data extracted from a VLE can even be used for strategic planning.

If you are looking to hire a VLE expert, or need help improving your VLE – get in touch today!