The Virtual College

The virtual college is a tele-educational environment that offers the opportunity for students to participate in courses from their home or office. The desktop computer is the students access to the college and the user interface is a common Web-browser. The college looks like a real college and it combines different modes of education. There is a classroom, where the lectures take place. There are group rooms, where students can join and work together on exercises. There is a study, where the students can work on self-study material, exercises, or find information on the Web. There is a tea-room, where the students can meet informally. The tea-room is offered to facilitate social contact in this virtual world. The classroom and group rooms require the students to be present at the same time. In the classroom the teacher will give lectures including slide presentations. The students may ask questions like in a normal class. In the group room the students can see each other, speak together, and work together using computer supported collaborative tools like shared white boards and shared pads. The students can visit the study when they want. The self-study material is especially prepared for this environment and includes educational animations, questions and answers etc. The virtual college is based on Internet technologies combined with audio and video conferencing tools. The system is implemented in Java and uses Mbone conferencing tools. The college can be scaled to fit the available communication bandwidth. Two major international trials have been conducted, including more than 40 students and teachers participating from four different countries. The virtual college will be presented and experiences from the trials will be reported.