The tender process occurred last year and the state government awarded the contract to Pearson Australia on January 3.

It is being funded by the federal government under its Digital Regions Initiative.

The contract is to provide and support a Virtual Learning Environment for all schools in the state including those accessing the curriculum through distance education and e-learning.

Education Department deputy secretary Andrew Finch said it was a single online entry point for all schools and stakeholders to access information, services and content needed to engage in collaborative and inclusive online learning.

``The VLE will include key tools and services for learning, as well as access via integration to administrative applications and systems data, such as absences, timetables, assessments, reports, etc,'' Mr Finch said.

``The VLE will encompass both a system for learning design, so that teachers can construct quality multimodal learning opportunities for students, as well as a range of services that enable students the opportunity to engage in learning with other users through less structured and teacher intervention dependent tools, eg. wikis and blogs.''

Mr Finch said the department worked with the Catholic Education Office and Association of Independent Schools Tasmania to secure the federal funding and without it, it could not be rolled out to schools.

He said it would have a positive impact on retention and learning outcomes for students.