One of the hardest tasks in planning to roll out your Virtual eLearning Environment is knowing when and how to introduce the system to your organisation.

"We only get one shot at this".

In reality, you only get one chance to deploy it with staff and learners having no "bad experience of the VLE in this organisation" - if you move too fast or do not equip your staff or learners with the skills to operate the environment (VLE) you'll alienate them and each subsequent attempt to kick start the use of elearning systems will be greeted with a frosty reception.

Learners are good at latching on to new technologies and you should not underestimate the persuasive power of learners asking teaching staff why they can't access their subject information when they can in their other subjects and/or on other courses; "why can't I get my notes for your course when “mr(s) suchandsuch” gives us help through the VLE" - it's a striking image of learners engaging in learning and requesting extra-curricular work. At the end of the day, as much as a VLE will save you time and effort copying work and tracking grades, it is there FOR the learners to utilise to learn so it is critical that they are on-board from day one.

Perhaps you have a few technology-minded individuals in your classes/courses that you know will be able to help drive the concept of eLearning and enthuse their peers.

Start the use of the VLE within lessons/training oportunities, explaining how it can be used as a valuable resource.
A strategy that seems to work for most practitioners who have access to an interactive whiteboard, is to allow learners to come up to the board and click around the various sections (obviously not logged on as an admin or staff-level user!) to engage the learners in their exploration of this new environment.

With any elearning decision it is important that senior management are aware of and involved in the decisions - when you need backing to purchase systems or finance to pay for staff training they are the ones with the purse strings and weight to help you. If you are to effectively implement any elearning system in your organisation you must have a strategy, for ILT/eLearning across the curriculum, that is driven by management and developed through the staff. Without an effective plan of action you will find momentum quickly diminishes.

If your organisation does not have an ILT/eLearning plan in action or a strategy for their use of elearning systems, it is important to discuss what you hope to achieve in the short-term and in the long-term.

With any plan for deployment there should be a consideration of what is feasible in the short-term and what you plan to achieve over perhaps a 5 year period. Looking at this plan in stages will allow you to set performance criteria to grade your progress by.

If you know that you have to achieve targets such as those listed below you can keep the momentum of the environment's implementation going.

Example targets:

1. deployment of lesson notes by all practitioners for each each course by the end of 4 months.
2. deployment of interactive quizzes and/or other formative assessment tools, for learners to grade their own learning through course topics by the end of 12 months.
3. deployment of extra-curricular work for extension to learning and interactive elements to lessons such as discussion boards, online assessment, quizzes to be standard by the end of 20 months.

Having a clear plan of action is essential and the choice of implementation time can lead to a whole series of scenarios with their own pro's and con's.

If you decide to deploy the VLE at the beginning of a term, directly to all staff and learners, you may find that the lack of content in 'lesson areas' may switch learners off from the VLE. You may also find that staff have so much work on that they have little time to bother with the system.

By knowing how your organisation operates, and the idiosyncrasies of each 'department' you may be able to model various scenarios for different times of the year. Experience suggests that it is more beneficial to spend time the term before you implement a VLE, training staff and exciting them with the possibilities for their own courses.

Try to use cross-curricular examples of ways in which the VLE can be used to enhance the subject/course tutor's lesson and cut down on their administration time. If you have a VLE/staff development co-ordinator allow them time to consider each subject area to research and provide examples that will enthuse the teaching staff to create imaginative uses of the environment.

If you can deliver some training and allow practitioners access to the environment, from home, with plenty of backup help from your VLE co-ordinator or other support staff, staff you are more likely to find excited staff creating materials in their own time (using eXe facilitates the development by providing ownership).

Whenever you decide to implement your system ensure that there is substantial time to test the system before you let loose a product you're not sure can cope with the strain of every-day use. Having been involved in the technical side of VLE's and organisational deployment there are always teething problems that need to be addressed before you dare let staff near the system.

Usually these boil down to nothing more than simple errors in installation, permissions problems or faulty hardware. If you can manage to spend time with several of your "trusted learners" stress testing the system this allows you to excite the learners about the possibilities and give them a sense that they're actually making a valuable contribution to their learning provider. If you have a student/learner council (or equivalent) they may be your first port of call for volunteers - If you can create a subset admin group for your student council they may be able to see and imagine the possibilities of keeping a track of all their meetings and events online, readily available for senior management to view.

Yet again, it's all about creating that link between learners, practitioners and managers. If each area can feel a part of the deployment process, feeling that their comments and suggestions are being taken onboard, success will come much more easily. Alienation from the deployment of the system, from its introduction into the curriculum and from future developments will create a state of apathy toward the use of the VLE. If you are now at the state where you have a VLE co-ordinator, know where you want to be in the short and long-term and have practitioners and learners ready to go you're probably considering the best course of action and the options available to you.