This case study is a transcript of an interview with this author written by Torstein Rekkedal. 

Nettskolen is the brand name for courses on the Internet offered by the NKI Department of 

Distance Education. NKI is a private educational organization comprising: 

The NKI Department of Distance Education has about 12,000 students and 250 distance 

education programs and courses 

The Polytechnic College offers full time and part time undergraduate programs in 

Information Technology at four campus in Norway 

N ringsAkademiet offers short courses and one year programs with emphasis on 

Information technology at about 20 local study centers throughout Norway. 

A standard structure for web courses is developed. WWW is used for distribution of static 

material that should be printed by students and for presentation of interactive course material. 

E mail addresses to teachers and students are presented as links on web based class rosters. 

WWW is used to present archives of class conferences. A web based student administration 

system is developed to handle student registration, password management, inclusion in class 

rosters and class conferences etc. Simple use of multiple choice assignments, animation, and 

video is also included on the web. 

NKI Nettskolen offers nearly 60 web based courses within the following programs: 

Information technology (15 courses) 

Information technology for teachers (6 courses) 

Business administration (12 courses) 

Psychology (8 courses) 

Philosophy (4 courses) 

High school courses (7 courses) 

Miscellaneous (5 courses). 

NKI Nettskolen is powered by Netscape s servers. In addition we apply Listserv distribution 

lists and Mhonarc a program that reads listserv archives and displays them on the web. We 

have further developed a student registration system named SESAM. At the moment, we are 

developing services based on the Oracle database management system and a RealMedia server 

is recently installed for audio  and video applications. 

The use of media does not vary much between courses. Study guides, links, communication 

services etc. are provided via the web. Typically the courses include standard textbooks that 

are distributed via land mail. Some courses require use of commercial software packages that 

students must purchase or free software that they could download via the web. The courses do 

not usually include any face to face sessions. 

NKI Nettskolen adhere to a model in which elements of tutoring are build into the web based 

study guide. This means that detailed explanation, many examples, self tests, model answers 

etc. are included in the study guides. In addition, communication with a personal tutor and 

access to peer students are important elements of student tutoring. 

One online techniques are not yet an important feature of our courses. They are mainly used 

by including links to external web resources, by providing links to search engines, and by 

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