Delivering computer assisted learning across the WWW

• Published in: Computer networks and ISDN systems Vol. 30; no. 1; pp. 301 - 307
• Main Authors: Robinson, David A., Lester, Callum R., Hamilton, Neil M.
• Format: Journal Article Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01.04.1998; Elsevier Science
• Subjects: Applied sciences; CBT; Computer assisted instruction; Computer science; control theory; systems; Education; Exact sciences and technology; Information systems. Data bases; Java; Learning; Memory organisation. Data processing; Software; Training; World Wide Web; Learning; Training; Java; CBT; Education; JAVA language; World wide web; Information retrieval; Computer networks; Internet; Information technology; Computer aid; Teaching
• ISSN: 0169-7552
• DOI: 10.1016/S0169-7552(98)00065-8

The National Committee of Inquiry Into Higher Education Report [4] made several key recommendations regarding the implementation of Communications and Information Technology (C&IT) in UK Higher Education. Many of these recommendations rely upon appropriate network connectivity being made available for all higher education sites. If advantage is to be taken of this connectivity then a clear understanding of the issues regarding network delivery of learning materials is essential. Making network delivered Computer Assisted Learning (CAL) a truly distributed teaching aid means developing with several different end user platforms in mind including Windows (Microsoft), Macintosh (Apple) and UNIX (Bell Labs). Traditionally this would mean reworking the CAL resource for each system. A new method of providing networked CAL to avoid the pitfalls of traditional methods was investigated and demonstrated. This was achieved using Web pages enhanced with Java applets (Fig. 1), MPEG video clips (Fig. 2) and Dynamic HTML (Fig. 3).