The web is used for presentation, communication, administration, and teaching with uses 

increasing all the time. Level 1 involves administrative information about the course, some 

course content , links to other resources and e mail contact to staff for more information. At 

Level 2 there is compulsory use of the web by all students, with a wider variety of content, 

learning resources and interaction, including virtual tutorials and discussion forums (either 

synchronous or asynchronous). At Level 3 the course is essentially managed via the web, with 

substantial content, resources and interaction on the web. 

The media emphasis is on www plus paper or all on the web. The ideal is the optimum use of 

the various media available and this generally means paper plus the web. 

The web is used for content, interactivity, sound, and video. There is some Java. There is a 

heavy emphasis on audio. They are converting our whole library of audiocassettes from the 

distance learning courses to the web. Real Audio is being use as an interim system but we are 

developing our own audio system for the web and will not be buying anything off the shelf. 

The web is used for one online, one to one, one to many, and many to many communication. 

We are using WebCT and this meets most of our interim needs. Macquarie has a very big 

computerized administration system but this needs upgrading and because there is no easy 

solution, we are maintaining our own wbt administrative system and this will eventually be 

integrated into the new university computerized administration system. 

The web is used for human tutoring, machine tutoring, and group tutoring in accordance with 

the course requirements. They do not support peer assessment. TMAs and CMAs and 

examinations are all used extensively. 

The university s degrees are offered over the www with some post graduate diplomas. 

Undergraduates pay the same Federal Government fees as on campus students. Postgraduate 

students courses are fee paying in accordance with Australian university structures and the 

market. 

Enrolment is characterized by fixed start and fixed finish. 

The web is an area of very rapid growth. At the moment we are carrying out a university wide 

inventory to find out the full scale of what is being offered. This is a mature and stable 

provision of university degrees via the www with considerable experimentation. We are 

breaking down any distinction between on campus students and distance education. 

Irrespective of student location, the student can get the same course with the same level of 

support for the same degree, and can study on the web whether on campus or not. 

Categories of Institutions that Offer Online Courses 

The intention with this section of the report is to study if the various categories of institutions 

have different approaches to web based education. 

Table 9 shows that none of the institutions were classified as virtual or online universities. 

Further, 78 (60.0%) of the 130 institutions belong to the university and college sector. There 

are 13 institutions (10.0%) that belong to the traditional open university and distance 

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