Both the LMS and DMS are part of a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE).  The VLE is a software system designed to facilitate teachers in the management of educational courses for their students, especially by helping teachers and learners with course administration, assessment, communication and discussion. The VLE system can track the learners' progress, which can be monitored by both teachers and learners.

While often thought of as primarily tools for distance education, VLE's are most often used to supplement the face-to-face classroom. These systems usually run on servers, using one or more databases and a programming or scripting language such as PHP to serve the course to students as internet pages. Components of these systems usually include templates for content pages, discussion forums, chat, quizzes and exercises such as multiple-choice, true/false and one-word-answer. Teachers fill in these templates and then release them for learners to use. New features in these systems include blogs and RSS. Services generally provided include access control, provision of e-learning content, communication tools, and administration of the user groups.