The following statements included comments about WebCT: 

   <33> The web is used for all those four but mostly for communications and interactions. 

We use WebCT mostly as a learning environment but we are testing the other 

environments too. We combine so called  traditional  course materials with the 

communication in WWW environment. We have used web learning environments about 

two years, first in professional training courses and now also in the Virtual Open 

University Courses. 

   <107> The course began in 1997/8 as a low tech, primarily print based course. However, 

WebCT is their new online teaching tool which allows students to read course material, 

and to communicate through online discussions, bulletin boards and e mail. Glossaries, 

indexes and bibliographies can be created by students or staff and assessments are set and 

can be automatically marked. An example module from the course is available on the Web 

site and the quality of material and presentation is very high. 

   <11> The web is used for all four of these. The web provides an online learning 

environment including database and administration, We use WebCT. We had made very 

considerable development by ourselves before we bought WebCT. Internet database 

construction is not our core business and we were not willing to proceed and to maintain 

what we had developed, so we chose WebCT. We find it very economic and have now 

worked closely with Murray Goldberg at WebCT for over 12 months. 

   <11> Online materials must be given piecemeal to prevent students this age of racing 

ahead and around the materials. The design is kept simple but we start with the web and 

we work back from there. This means we offer a consortium of online teaching from all 

content online to no content online. The decision depends on the nature of the content and 

whether we are developing from new or adapting ran existing course to the web. We find 

that the internet is a cheaper way to update course content, especially in subjects where we 

change content annually like: Taxation, accounting and legal studies. We use CD ROM 

for heavy audio and video content. We have limited clips of audio and video on the web 

but heavy audio and graphics are called up from a CD ROM. Some of the activity is Java 

based but. We try to avoid Java because it is too costly. The chart system in WebCT is 

Java based. Assignments we submitted as attachments to a bulletin board. 

The following statements included comments about Lotus Notes: 

   <28> Only some elements are on the web; it is not necessary to have all on the web. This 

is a small city and we don t need to have all of the materials on the web. We use e mail, 

bulletin boards and conferencing packages for communication. We use a client/server 

architecture using modems but not ISPs. We have some interactive components with a 

little synchronous activity. We use some sound and video but not a lot. We are a center of 

excellence for distance learning research and for distance learning course development. 

We have some Java and use Lotus Notes for our system .For the administration we have 

used Lotus Notes Net Learning Space and we do our own programming. We find that 

Lotus Notes cannot be modified and are now looking at WebCT. We make our own html 

pages. 

   <66> The web is used for all of these except for administration. We will however try to 

include database and administration in a new web based course in JAVA programming, 

which starts next autumn. We also plan to collect data in a Internet database from a field 

course which is a part of a distance education course called Evolution and Environment. 

The web provides an online learning environment. The use of Web in our courses is 

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