Developing courses for the Web: at which cost? 3 years of practice from PDF to Rich Media

Delivering courses through the Internet may range from the simple electronic repository of documents up to the richest interactive tools. Many actors intervene from the teacher up to high skilled specialists and the production of the documents has a cost, not only in term of expense but mainly in term of required manpower. Documents may be categorized depending on the complexity of the work required for their production; we explain our policy for each category and the methods that we use to enhance the productivity. Our conclusion is that sophistication i.e. rich media, videos and animation should be restricted to production of strategic interest and that intermediate solutions exist which are of high interest for teaching.