Virtual learning environments (VLE) and their influence on teaching performance

The technological presence is currently a patent process throughout the world, and involves various fields, including education. For this reason, it is essential that the participating agents relate to it and dominate it, in order to achieve improvements in the teaching-learning processes.
Currently, it can be seen that educational institutions gradually incorporate technological and digital communication tools; however, its use is not yet full. The advances, and therefore the changes, occur at a high speed, and the adaptations are still calm. One of the reasons why this happens is due to the scarce, and sometimes null, digital literacy, both for the student community and for the teacher, mainly for the latter.
It is important to highlight that the existence or use of technological means does not guarantee the achievement of educational quality. To achieve this, the orientation and pedagogical strategies of the teacher are necessary, since this is ultimately the one who designs, develops and evaluates the class sessions, and mainly who makes the students understand the information transmitted and use it in their social environment.
This last point is very important because meaningful learning is a fundamental edge in teaching performance that can be achieved by fulfilling several aspects: full knowledge of the subject by the teacher, explanatory clarity, teaching support materials, among others. These aspects are often fulfilled by teachers during face-to-face classes; however, the problem arises when the classes are moved to virtual spaces or the support of technology is required to reinforce the learning sessions, because in them, in addition to the knowledge of the subject, it is necessary to know the management of the educational platforms, to in order to transform physical teaching materials into digital teaching materials, which improve the teaching-learning process.
Teachers often do not efficiently manage digital classrooms, known as Virtual Learning Environments (EVA). These are spaces for interaction, located on a website, through which various teachings are transmitted, and which currently, due to globalization and its multiple benefits, are widely used, but their use is still not as expected.
Now, can it be said that a teacher has a good performance even without having knowledge —or very little— about the use of information and communication technologies (ICT)? Possibly, a radical position regarding this question would be to classify teaching performance as bad in the absence of ICT mastery; however, it is undeniable that its lack of knowledge or poor use is, without a doubt, a barrier that restricts the educational process, even more so in the current information age.
In this sense, it is relevant to inquire about the relationship between virtual education and teaching performance, in order to measure the influence of virtual learning environments on the tasks carried out by teachers, and to work on it. In this way, the use of technological-pedagogical tools can be promoted and education and comprehensive social development strengthened.