Although institutions of higher education have recognized the need for preparing their graduates for a digitalized, global workplace, these efforts have been sporadic, individualized, and varied from discipline to discipline. Nevertheless, over the past 10 years, trends such as “double classrooms,” “inverted classrooms,” and “collaborative online international learning” (COIL) have gained traction at universities across the globe. With the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, efforts to engage students in the use of digital tools and virtual collaborative teamwork increased tenfold. Creative and innovative virtual learning environments (VLEs) have emerged, and instructors have used them to connect with their students much more frequently. The holistic nature of virtual learning, its impact on employability, and the development of global citizenry have become prime areas of research amongst the digital education landscape. Now more than ever, it is essential to look at virtual learning environments and how they can be used to prepare students and employees for the opportunities and challenges of a global, digital workplace. Developments in Virtual Learning Environments and the Global Workplace provides readers with a rationale and tool kit for facilitating virtual learning in a wide variety of contexts in response to the opportunities and challenges presented by the digital global workplace. This book covers virtual learning practices, the value of virtual learning for professionals and employers, and the best practices in online learning in different settings. Additionally, the chapters dive into the future perspectives and trends within virtual learning environments and the creation/evaluation of virtual learning strategies. These insights range from diverse countries, education levels, industry sectors, and academic disciplines, making this book a comprehensive research tool. This book will greatly benefit e-learning and instructional designers, university senior managers, university staff responsible for mobility and exchange, researchers, professionals responsible for organizational development and further education, human resource directors, global company executives, managers, practitioners, stakeholders, academicians, and students looking for information on how virtual learning environments are preparing students for the global workplace.

"This book should be used by human resource managers, corporate educators, instructional designers, consultants and researchers who want to discover how people use virtual realities for corporate education"--Provided by publisher.

Social problems are increasing as many nations industrialize, modernize, and become interconnected. Addressing these problems requires a well-educated workforce capable of adapting evidence-based interventions to their local culture. Providing a world-class education for these professionals is an important challenge. Online education is growing much quicker than the research and development efforts needed to insure the quality of online learning. Experiential Learning and Virtual Learning Environments in the Acquisition of Active Listening Skills illustrates how virtual learning environments that use experiential learning can deliver the global knowledge needed by these professionals while they live in their local communities. It reviews the literature, explains the process of designing a virtual learning environment, and describes research to insure online learning is an effective method for workforce training on core stills, such as listening. It provides important information for trainers and educators who are teaching future professionals using online tools such as virtual environments.

"This book explores the methods, skills, and techniques that are essential to lifelong learning and professional advancement offering critical insights for interested in the constantly shifting shape of the modern workforce"--

Advances in Business Education & Training is a Book Series to foster advancement in the field of Business Education and Training. It serves as an international forum for scholarly and state-of-the-art research and development into all aspects of Business Education and Training. This new volume deals with several aspects of the challenge to design learning in and for a changing world. The first part concerns program development. How to build curricula that are future-proof? Principles to innovate our curricula are identified. It answers the question how we can incorporate the need for change in our thinking about curriculum-development and identify the necessary elements to incorporate in our curricula. The second part focuses on the increasing diversity of students and employees within our schools and organizations, in terms of culture, language, and perception of ability, gifts, and talents. This offers a range of opportunities, but at the same time can possibly jeopardize some processes that are taken for granted. Chapters in this part analyze the processes that play a crucial role in dealing with this diversity and identify educational practices that can help to harvest the potential that lies within this diversity. The third part of this book digs further into the possibilities that are opened up by the implementation of ICT-support in our learning environments. E-learning provides tools to adapt these environments to the needs of an increasingly diverse student-population. In the last part we focus specifically on the workplace and how learning can be designed in such a way that employees are equipped for a shifting workplace. On the one hand it is looked how training can affect performance in the workplace. Does learning transfer to the work environment? On the other hand it is questioned how one can design affordances to trigger learning in the workplace.

"This book highlights invaluable research covering the design, development, and evaluation of online learning environments, examining the role of technology enhanced learning in this emerging area"--Provided by publisher.--

Online and virtual education is continually integrated in university classrooms. While online learning provides a more cost-effective alternative for students, educators must also analyze the psychology of online learners and identify ways to support their growth and development in their respective instructional settings. Student-Centered Virtual Learning Environments in Higher Education is a collection of innovative research that focuses on connecting contextual analyses of student-focused online instruction with quality assurance principles to improve higher education. Highlighting a range of topics including instructional design, professional development, and student engagement, this book is ideally designed for educators, software developers, instructional designers, educational administration, academicians, and students seeking current research on emerging principles and practices related to designing, implementing, and evaluating virtual teaching and learning.

Building Online Learning Communities further explores the development of virtual classroom environments that foster a sense of community and empower students to take charge of their learning to successfully achieve learning outcomes. This is the second edition of the groundbreaking book by Rena Palloff and Keith Pratt and has been completely updated and expanded to include the most current information on effective online course development and delivery. A practical, hands-on guide, this resource is filled with illustrative case studies, vignettes, and examples from a wide variety of successful online courses. The authors offer proven strategies for handling challenges that include: Engaging students in the formation of an online learning community. Establishing a sense of presence online. Maximizing participation. Developing effective courses that include collaboration and reflection. Assessing student performance. Written for faculty in any distance learning environment, this revised edition is based on the authors many years of work in faculty development for online teaching as well as their extensive personal experience as faculty in online distance education. Rena M. Palloff and Keith Pratt share insights designed to guide readers through the steps of online course design and delivery.

Leadership and the traditional concept of what makes an effective leader is being challenged in the 21st century. Today, many teams are dispersed across time, geography, and cultures and coordinating those team using traditional concepts of leadership and management has been challenging. Strategic Management and Leadership for Systems Development in Virtual Spaces provides insights into the relationship between leadership and information systems development within online environments as well as strategies for effectively managing virtual teams. Focusing on opportunities as well as challenges associated with e-collaboration and managing remote workers, this peer-reviewed collection of research is designed for use by business professionals, scholars, and researchers in the fields of information science and technology, business and management, sociology, and computer science.

Equally grounded in the research and the practical applications developed by the authors over a number of years, this book shows how virtual learning environments could represent the future of higher education. As academics begin to use environments such as Second Life to reach a broader student audience, this volume offers the distance-learning community (administrators, faculty, and students) a different, yet successful, approach to delivering content over the Internet through 3D virtual learning environments that have the potential to transform higher education. Covering a broad spectrum of frameworks, from commercial multiplayer video games to online learning, the book shows just how powerful these environments can be in the arena of education, and concludes that data-driven practice will ensure almost universal take-up, even among those currently unwilling to use V-learning. The authors provide numerous practical examples of distance learning in its current state of development, as well as making informed predictions about how future environments might evolve. This much-needed book is right at the cutting edge of its subject, and comes at a time when research in both educational gaming and distance learning are converging.