Abstract
Using the Internet to enhance e-learning has become a trend in modern higher education institutes. E-learning systems are increasingly becoming an important Part of the strategy for delivering online and flexible e-learning. The main advantage of e-learning is the opportunity for students to interact electronically with each other and their teachers during forums, on discussion boards, by e-mail and in chat rooms. Though recognizing that the world at large will continue to use terminology in different and (fen ambiguous ways, the term of Virtual Learning Environments (VLE) is used to refer to the on-line interactions of a variety of kinds that take place between learners and instructors. There arc, many pieces of software available that provide VLE systems, both commercial and Open Source Software (OSS). One such system that has been gradually gaining worldwide popularity is known as Moodle. This paper focuses on this platform and on a comparison between VLE (Moodle) and other VLE systems in order to discover their strengths and limitations. The comparative study is in two phases. The first phase is based on the features and capabilities of VLE tools and the second phase is based on the technical aspects Of the VLE platforms.