THE PANOPTIC PERSPECTIVE OF VIRTUAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS: Technical and pedagogical strategies for monitoring/controlling students

Abstract

This text proposes a reflection on the resources of monitoring/controlling students, which are available in Virtual Learning Environments (VLE). They therefore serve as a reference for our readings, reflections, comments and research data on these aspects and resources relating to the teaching and learning process. Also, to enrich our reflection, we make an analogy with the penitentiary architectural project systemized by Jeremy Bentham in the 18th Century, which gave the overseer a privileged view, ensuring greater control over the prisoners. Today’s technologies enable numerous forms of controls, which dispense with the physical architecture, with strategies becoming more subtle. We emphasize the resources for the management and monitoring of the pupils taking distance learning courses which use VLEs. In the Bentham proposal, the overseer was able to view and control the prisoners from a central point of view. In the same way, the professor is also given the opportunity to evaluate and control the presence and performance of participants in distance learning courses. Finally, we point out that the way in which these resources are used reflects the teaching practice and its intention, therefore, they can be used to stimulate and guide the students in their study, or to punish or classify.