This article describes ROODA (http://www.homer.nuted.edu.ufrgs.br), a virtual learning environment and one of the official Long Distance Education platforms that has been in use since 2005 at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Porto Alegre, Brazil. It is free software that integrates syncronous and assyncronous interaction/communication tools and publications. In this study, details about institutional demands in relation to long distance education are discussed and ROODA is described with the components that were part of its development such as: modelling and programming, graphic interface and documents for users. Moreover, 19 functions were conceived. Finally, project investigation paths are presented where the platform described is inserted.