The law influences and shapes social work practice, and regulates social work decision making - and it is vitally important to your own professional development that you keep up to date.

The VLC offers a detailed and consistent approach that allows you to explore the relationship between the law and social work thinking across a range of Scottish practice settings.

Through the VLC, you have immediate access to updates on social work legislation and policy. Content is drawn from a range of resources including journal articles, websites, research reviews, legislation and government documents.

It's a facility to support your learning at college, at work, or at home! Now you can choose when the time is right for you to study. This way it's easy to plan a schedule around work and other commitments - studying in the lunch hour, at home in the evenings or wherever. It all adds up to a better use of precious time and effort.

Find information, seek help and guidance with your subject, and download resources for your projects. Take part in discussions on any aspect of the topics of your course. Share your work with others! Initiate discussions and share thoughts and ideas with other people studying your subject.

The Virtual Learning Centre is operated by Deborah Baillie, an independent consultant and trainer in health and social work law.

You may be interested in reading our leaflet, The VLC - exploring the relationship between the law and social work

Read this document about what you need to use the Virtual Learning Centre.

For general information about Deborah Baillie, please email deborah@baillie.org.uk.

For further information about the Virtual Learning Centre, please email webmaster@baillie.org.uk.

The Virtual Learning Centre is powered by Moodle - the Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment.

Moodle is software written by Martin Dougiamas of Perth, Australia, a PhD candidate interested in marrying his knowledge of computers with his belief in social constructionist pedagogy. The software is absolutely free of charge (and available for download at http://moodle.org) and can be developed or used by profit or non-profit organizations - no strings attached (a very different model than the corporate market that has dominated software development since the inception of computers).

The Moodle project wants students to participate in their courses, to learn how to take full advantage of the software's features, to think carefully about how it is they learn, and (if so inclined) to apply what they've learned by becoming future developers of this free project.

Teachers, parents, grandparents, bosses, administrators, or guests, who have learned about Moodle from its students may wish to donate to the ongoing success of this worthy project. Because Moodle does not currently receive any regular funding from an organisation or government body, it relies completely on ad-hoc donations by supporters.

If you would like to contribute financially to the Moodle project (not to this site itself!), click here.

For more information about Moodle, visit the website at http://moodle.org.