Adaptive innovation and a MOODLE-based VLE to support a fully online MSc Business Information Technology (BIT) at the University of East London (UEL)

This paper examines approaches to innovation as theoretical background to systems development life cycle (SDLC) practices employed during open source software development using MOODLE to implement a new virtual learning environment (VLE) for an e-learning project at the University of East London (UEL). The School of Computing, Information Technology and Engineering (CITE) and UELconnect, UEL’s distance learning arm, have worked together to develop and implement the new VLE. The paper argues that the emerging Adaptive Innovation Approach, when used as a broad SDLC framework and inclusive of the respective work done by Eric von Hippel on Distributed Innovation and Henry Chesbrough on Open Innovation, can support a practitioner oriented and a user-centred SDLC to better account for new cultural necessities and new economic realities dominating our dynamic global era. The paper takes a closer look at the development of UEL’s MOODLE-based VLE for its adaptive innovation qualities and offers various lessons from the validation of a Fully Online MSc Business Information Technology (BIT) that was developed alongside with the VLE. Finally, the paper offers some additional observations from testing MOODLE’s eMail Block installed in the new VLE to accommodate internal communication for the newly validated MSc.