Abstract:

The rapid strides made in the field of information & communication technology (ICT) have led to a paradigm shift in education. There has been a sea change in the ways how education is provided with the application of new ICTS. More and more individuals, especially the working executives and managers are taking courses to relish their dreams. Though it has yet to go miles to outsmart the conventional education system but its rising contribution in the arena of education is undeniable. The contemporary learning system came to life by clutching the hands of the professionals who dreamt of pursuing higher education for their self-improvement. But after a long journey since the time of implementation, online courses are providing the right podium for the professionals and students alike to sculpt their nourished wishes into the right shape.

To cater to this large segment of learners, a number of management institutions have started offering a wide range of courses on the web. The web collects and creates knowledge resources from any place any time. Such advancements in ICTs in the web era have enabled management institutions to provide education by adopting Virtual Learning Environments (VLE).

A VLE is a set of teaching and learning tools designed to enhance a student's learning experience by including computers and the Internet in the learning process. The principal components of a VLE package include curriculum mapping, student tracking, online support for both teacher and student, electronic communication, and Internet links to outside curriculum resources.

To provide an effective and efficient VLE is not an easy task to perform. Certain issues and challenges are faced by the
stakeholders. VL can have a far reaching and fulfilling impact in the developing countries and this is usually due to a very important factor i.e. Demand and Supply Gap existing in such countries. The demand for education is huge in all the developing countries especially in India is huge but due to lot of factors (one of them being Competition) prevailing in India the students don't get what they actually aspire in terms of admission and especially quality even if they get the admission. This is where VL can play a immense role in fulfilling the aspirations of the students.
This paper would be focused on the mass outreach aspect of VL which can be fulfilled cost effectively.
As in any initiative there are both sides of the coin which can be assessed and so is the case of VL whereby there are many pros and cons for the same which can be discussed and analyzed at length. In this paper we would also like to discuss and analyze the same.

To outreach to the mass Government of India has taken initiatives like Open University concept especially in higher education, still a lot can be done with the help of Information Technology in order to reach to the masses effectively and that also with quality. Through this paper authors would like to discuss how learning and teaching can be fun in higher education especially management education through VLE.

Issues & challenges to be studied in this paper are Quality issues, Gap between the demand of VLE and its supply, Initiatives taken by government and private bodies, Cost effectiveness of the VLEs with respect to management education in a developing country like India.

Keywords:

Vle.