collaborative and self-directed learning in a virtual campus environment: a potential solution for our years?

In the current society, where the information flow has a big impact on the learner, and the learning methods differ from student to student, it is important to understand a virtual campus and its benefits. Nobody can doubt the impact of the new technologies on the educational system. In this new reality, universities must learn to work and collaborate with other universities or groups of interest in order to prepare learners to meet the requirements of the 21^st century.  The solution can be a virtual campus that offers powerful tools, access to content and services, personal learning environment, enabling the student to acquire information and learn new skills.

This article offers on overview of a virtual campus and the prototype of learner that is suitable for it. The accent falls on two of the skills that a learner must have: self directed learning and of course collaborative learning. The first concept refers to the learner’s capabilities to be responsible of his decisions regarding the learning process and to take the initiative while the second one is based on the fact that a virtual campus is built on collaborative processes that engage stakeholders to interact and learn from each other.