Dieses Paper weist auf die Überwachungsmöglichkeiten aktueller Learning Management Systeme (LMS) hin und vergleicht diese mit der Panopticums-Metapher von Foucault. Damit prägen Learning Management Systeme auch die Lernenden, welche die potenzielle Überwachung verinnerlichen.

This paper considers a little-discussed aspect of online learning - the surveillance or 'student tracking' capabilities of virtual learning environments (VLEs). In, at least, the two main commercially available VLEs - Blackboard and WebCT - sophisticated, powerful, easy-to-use means of collecting data on students' activities within the learning space are built in as part of its pedagogical functioning. Where such surveillance tools are often promoted, and accepted, as useful ways of evaluating course effectiveness through helping us to understand student usage of the online facility, we wish to probe a little deeper and think about some of the broader cultural and pedagogical implications of using these tracking devices.
The paper uses a theoretical framework drawn from the work of Foucault and from more recent theoretical approaches to privacy within cyberspace. It begins by giving a brief overview of the kinds of surveillance tools which we have access to in WebCT and Blackboard, moving on to the application of Foucault's panopticon metaphor to such facilities, and finally examining the implications of their use for educational practice.
The unifying theme of our discussion relates to the way in which the individuality of our learners is affected by the use of cyberspace as a learning environment. We believe that the learning environments we use work to develop certain kinds of learners, thus the subjectivity of the online learner is our central concern.