The present thesis is a study about the approximations and distances between the fields of Design and Distance Education and an analysis of the conceptions of Distance Education agents (managers, teachers, designers and instructional designers) about what enhances the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) as a support of signification and interaction that mediates the educator-educating relationship. We assume as theoretical framework in this research the concepts of interaction addressed by Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky and the conceptions of Meanings and Senses addressed by Mikhail Bakhtin. The analytical focus falls on the possible intersections between these two fields and particularly from the perspective of the construction and configuration of Virtual Learning Environments. We argue in the thesis that the approaches between Design and Distance Education can contribute to the emergence of new teaching practices and favor the interaction and the construction of meanings in supports and systems in situations of use in the context of the teaching-learning communities. The present research has as general objective to understand the concepts of the agents of Distance Education about what enhances the Virtual Learning Environment as a support of meaning and interaction and facilitates mediating practices in the educator-educating relationship. Thus, it is presumed that such agents of Distance Education are those subjects directly involved in the planning, execution and follow-up of courses in the distance modality, such as managers, teachers, designers, instructional designers, students, among others. Thus, the field of Distance Education is considered as a segment that has emerged in contemporary times and demanded the incorporation of digital information and communication technologies as fundamental resources for the expansion of this type of teaching. It is an investigation conducted by the question that questions the conceptions of the agents of the Distance Education about what potentiates the VLE as a support of signification and interaction. In view of this, through this research, it was possible to verify that the investigated institutions opt for the use of commonly recognized resources, demonstrating a shortage of alternatives in the production and appropriation of new VLE s in the context of Design teaching. It was also possible to recognize, through our preliminary descriptive and comparative analysis, the potentialities and limits in five virtual environments of Virtual Learning Environments most used in the world: Moodle, Blackboard, EDX, Cousera and Edmodo.