Does the use of the Internet in any way contribute to a student’s learning process, and if yes, precisely what added value does this represent? This question – and more specifically the attempt to answer it – is what lies at the heart of this dissertation, which considers the issue from a number of perspectives based on experiences, opinions and academic theories. This is done through the analysis of a new and innovative educational concept: Virtual Action Learning. Virtual Action Learning (VAL) is an educational concept that was designed to connect with the personal learning environments of people who live in a world where technology and social media play a dominant role. In other words, a world in which information is processed in an interactive and visual manner within the context of ever-changing situations and processes that demand ever higher levels of individual responsibility. The application of VAL concerns a way of learning that is different from what is common: VAL is based on social-constructivist learning theory in combination with an intensive use of ICT in the student's learning process. This takes place in the Virtual Learning Community (VLC), an electronic learning environment developed to support the learning process. In addition to the educational characteristics of the VAL concept, a managerial perspective can be distinguished that involves the way in which schools and universities organise their processes in order to facilitate learning. This process approach, born in the nineteen-nineties, is grounded in a number of business theories. The VAL concept distinguishes three primary processes: the learning process, for which the student carries responsibility, and the processes related to teaching and assessment, for which the instructor is held responsible. With the help of design principles that are firmly based on theory, we first describe the way in which the learning process evolves. The ensuing assessment process is closely linked with the educational process, but is first and foremost geared towards the learning process of individual students. By connecting the above-mentioned process activities via a Feedback and Reflection Cycle, it becomes possible to establish a strong connection between a course’s contents and its related competences. To achieve this, we need to ensure that - throughout the course - participants are continuously engaged in a Meaningful Dialogue: interaction and the mutual exchange of constructive feedback, not only among students themselves, but also among students and their teachers. This is partly done in the VLC and partly during meetings held at school, a process for which new (virtual) educational forms have been designed and which focuses on the power of feedback provided and received by students on their specific learning products in the VLC. Within the VAL concept, the Meaningful Dialogue is considered to be the measure of good quality education that is supported by ICT.