  Under consideration are the general set of Human computer Interaction (HCI)
and Educational principles from prominent authors in the field and the
construction of a system for evaluating Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs)
with respect to the application of these HCI and Educational Principles. A
frequency analysis of principles is used to obtain the most significant set.
Metrics are devised to provide objective measures of these principles and a
consistent testing regime is introduced. These principles are used to analyse
the University VLE Blackboard. An open source VLE is also constructed with
similar content to Blackboard courses so that a systematic comparison can be
made. HCI and Educational metrics are determined for each VLE.
