Course Delivery Systems for the Virtual University

This chapter analyzes course delivery systems in the context of distance learning using the World Wide Web (WWW) and Internet in general. Many projects are focused on web based education (WBE) systems and tools, covering the spectrum of teacher, student and institutional needs for virtual education. These needs are addressed in traditional, face to face residential, education (we will call this human based education or HBE) by a variety of methods: lectures, textbook, tests and exercises, labs and seminars, office hour contacts with the teachers and teaching assistants (TA), the registrar’s office etc. Systems and teams that produce systems are changing rapidly, but the underlying educational needs are not. The goal of this chapter is to provide the reader with a sense of the landscape of systems and features plus some idea of who the players have been up to this time. For the builder of on-line courses and virtual universities we hope to help shape thinking and provide a good bibliography.