The WWW has achieved enormous success in academic research circles, and commercial interests have started to adopt the WWW as a new medium for advertising and marketing. Along with this increase in popularity, there has been a rush to incorporate new features into the associated software, many of which can facilitate and enhance specific educational modes discussed later in this paper. For example, as HTML has evolved, functionality has been added such as interactive forms, defined "hot spots" in images, more versatile layout styles, and formatted tables. Internet Relay Chats (real-time group discussions) and CVE’s (Collaborative Virtual Environments) provide users and designers with the ability to interact with each other live instead of, for example, having to wait for a mailing list to distribute the information as it is posted via e-mail. Microsoft's NetMeeting and CUSeeMe are teleconferencing programs that allow users to see and hear each other in real time. Functionality such as this combined with the WWW's built-in audio-visual capabilities suggests new possibilities for group-based on-line education.

The WWW has grown from its origins as a simple system for distributing documents and communicating among members of the high-energy physics community into a more general multimedia tool of wider appeal. Nevertheless, its use as a research tool continues and has increased enormously. Research institutions and universities have established home pages and the WWW is increasingly used to advertise the work and interests of departments and staff. Researchers are still some of the keenest users of the WWW in view of its potential for contact and collaboration, for disseminating research findings, and for facilitating peer review of the outcomes of research (Russell & Baird 1995).

Because of the vast numbers of WWW sites, knowing where to begin searching, what to look for, and what to ignore can be a daunting task. The development of what are known as webworms, spiders, and knowbots (computerised search agents which will scan the Internet looking for requested information) has facilitated searches somewhat although it has brought another problem in that an overwhelming amount of reference material may be returned. This has been helped somewhat by individual WWW users who have already begun to catalogue the enormous variety of educational resources available on-line. As this information is compiled, it becomes available to the educational community in the form of on-line resource guides, some of which are no more than hypertext lists of known educational resources.

From a curricular point of view, the WWW can be used to design tutorials and on-line lessons for a variety of subjects. For example, (Blumberg 1994) describes an on-line teaching tool for basic genetics known as MendelWeb (http://www.netspace.org/MendelWeb/) that integrates elementary biology, discrete mathematics, and the history of science. MendelWeb is presented as an active document, with links to traditional reference material as well as images, tutorials, active commentaries, related Web sites, and animations. Discussion and questions are presented as they would be in a live introduction to biology course - students may choose in what order they wish to explore the topics, enabling them to develop their comprehension of the subject at their own rate.

As it develops on a larger scale, use of this type of educational hypermedia material raises a number of user interface issues, a major one of which concerns user navigation - how on the one hand to prevent the user from becoming overwhelmed with information and losing track of their direction, whilst on the other hand permitting them to make the most of the facilities hypermedia offers. One solution that might be termed adaptive hypermedia is initially to restrict the number of links made available to the student and then dynamically to increase or reconfigure the available links as the user proceeds. Through the research work of Mullier (1995a), Mullier (1995b) and Bell (1996) described below, LMU has been exploring each of these approaches. Mullier’s current prototypes achieve this using a combination of knowledge-based representations ("semantic hypermedia") and neural network models ("connectionist modelling").

Another approach is to allow all users unrestricted access to all the system’s links, but to seek to ameliorate the possible cognitive overhead using one or more navigational aids. (Hutchings et al 1992) suggests that there are three categories of such devices. Firstly, direct access devices associate a unique object with each node in the system, either in the form of graphical objects or icons (maps and browsers), or keywords (contents and index lists). These enable users to "jump" to any node in the system with one action. Examples of direct access devices are contents lists, maps, indexes, homing functions (Norman 1994) and landmarks (Nielsen 1993)). Secondly, history devices provide a record of nodes which have been viewed so that users may return to any previously visited node, or can recognise those nodes which have already been accessed; examples are the timestamp (Nielsen 1990)), backtrack (Nielsen 1990), bookmarking and history list (Nielsen 1993)). Finally, the use of tours seeks to remove the requirements for navigation by connecting a series of nodes together.

Proponents of the Internet have long promoted its use as a forum for discussion and as a marketplace for ideas and information. The WWW also fulfils this goal, and in terms of use in the education community, the WWW can provide a basis for virtual debate and discovery. All of the original uses of the Internet - including file transfer protocol (ftp), e-mail, USENET news, and gopher continue to thrive in the context of the WWW and have now converged into a singular informational tool through WWW browsers such as Netscape Navigator and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Because of this, it is conceivable for a designer to utilise all of these services to set up a multimedia/hypermedia discussion on any given subject. As a basis for such discussions, Internet users have traditionally used mailing lists to form a discussion group, receiving information from and posting information to the mailing list via e-mail that in turn then distributes the information to everyone on the list. Some organisations have used mailing lists to run virtual conferences, where sometimes thousands of people sign up to an on-line discussion and take part in a week-long forum, all without leaving their homes or offices.

For educators, this combination of presentation (through the WWW) and critique (through mailing lists) can be used successfully in a variety of ways. For instance, a teacher could set up a WWW site that comprises the lectures, frequently asked questions, and multimedia presentations. Via a mailing list, students could automatically add information to that site in the form of additional questions, reports, essays, etc. In this case, they could use mail-to-HTML converters and so would not need to become experts in HTML. The software would then automatically append their message onto the page itself, so future site visitors will be able to read the comments. The educational potential of such a system cannot be ignored although the uncontrolled and unrefereed nature of the material has to be born in mind. Treloar (1995) suggests, however, that there is no reason why Web-published journals should not be subject to the same peer review processes that apply in the print world.

Students can also use the various Internet technologies to create their own hypertext work and then present it on-line so that their peers and lecturers may discuss and review it. Learning how to critique others’ work and to present a persuasive, constructive argument are skills that are often gained slowly for many students, for they are rarely taught in any formal fashion (Laurillard 1995). Further, on-line electronic discussions apparently seem to be less threatening for some than standing up in front of peers. In addition, because conversation is electronic, it can be automatically catalogued and presented by the student as part of the project. This is not to propose that traditional class presentations should vanish with the advent of on-line class forums, but that allowing students to work with and learn from each other in such a way could encourage the many students who previously did not easily contribute voluntarily to a discussion.

One of the most exciting recent developments for collaborative education is the development of collaborative virtual environments (CVE’s). CVE’s may allow individual users to extend the environment by "building" or creating new objects. In an educational context this could allow the student to become an active participant in the learning experience. In addition, it is well documented in the literature that CVE’s provide a strong sense of "presence", possibly bringing back some of the social intercourse of "campus" life that is lost in distance education.

The process of exploring the WWW is itself an educational experience. There are however more structured ways that the WWW can be used in the educational context. With the ability of HTML to use fill-in forms, courseware designers are able to create educational material that has most of the characteristics of courseware built on stand-alone machines. Another area which is very resource-intensive and which is therefore the target of many educational institutions seeking efficiency-savings in the current climate of financial cutbacks in educational funding is student assessment. Again, fill-in forms may be employed to create interactive testing pages, and educational sites have begun offering tests and quizzes for both assessment and self-assessment.

To explore this latter capability further a WWW-based Podiatry test was developed and evaluated. In consultation with a lecturer in the Podiatry School at Queensland University of Technology a Multimedia Podiatry Test (http://www.dstc.edu.au/TU/staff/taylor/podiatry/Podtest.html) was constructed on its home page. The questions for the test were taken from existing paper-based questions. The test was demonstrated to a lecturer at the Podiatry School, and then to a practising podiatrist. The feedback from both parties was very encouraging. The lecturer considered that the functionality of the test would be a useful addition to the pedagogical tools available to him; the practising podiatrist was interested in the prospect of having available an on-line multimedia test incorporating high quality colour images and video since practising podiatrists in Australia are often spread over very large areas at considerable distance from a Podiatry School.

The Podiatry project was itself an exercise in distance education, as the research and practical work were completed in Australia with the supervisor based in the United Kingdom. All supervision of the project was performed over the Internet using e-mail, Chat, Internet Phone, and video conferencing. The practical components of the project and the draft and final project reports were exchanged by e-mailing the URL address of the relevant work, and using a portable document format for the transfer.

It is clear that multimedia has much to offer education. There is the potential for better quality courses, prepared by the best tutors, courses may be made consistent across and between organisations, and students typically retain more from interactive multimedia training than traditional classroom courses. Equally important in the modern climate, cost reductions may become possible as courses become available through the WWW and other networks to more learners, and it becomes increasingly feasible to cater for "non-standard" students such as those wishing to study part-time or from work. However, Moore and Hobbs (1997) identify limits to multimedia technology's capabilities in a training role, in particular with regard to individualised feedback and discussion. The danger is that the multimedia teaching interaction can become a one-way transfer of a body of reified knowledge, from the knowledgeable computer to the student lacking in that knowledge - the "banking concept of education" (Friere 1972).

There are two possible approaches to addressing this problem of untoward didacticism. One is to have multiple participants in the learning interactions, so that learners are able to use the environment to communicate, either synchronously or asynchronously, with each other and with their tutors through related developments such as the "virtual school" (e.g. (Facemyer 1996), and the use of CSCDL - Computer Supported Collaborative Distributed Learning (Fjuk and Sorensen 1996). Skillcorn (1996) advocates a similar approach, seeing "networked hypermedia courseware" as a possible solution to the economic demands on Higher Education and to student demand for flexible provision, and describing social interaction in hypermedia environments as yielding a "community of learners". Such an approach is clearly promising.

The second approach is to have the computer itself be a participant in the learning interaction. Recent research by Moore and Hobbs (1994) aimed to contribute to this endeavour by designing a system that would engage its student in educational debate on controversial issues such as capital punishment and abortion. This is seen as being important educationally in that debate can be expected to improve the student's critical faculties, helping him or her to adopt a questioning approach and to think for themselves, rather than passively receiving input from the tutor or any other source (Moyse and Elsom-Cook 1992). This should result in a gain in awareness, on the part of the student, of the substantive points of dispute involved. The authors argue that scope for application is wide, for as Self (1992) points out: "... it is rarely possible to define a unique 'correct' viewpoint to be communicated to a student".

Assuming that the future of the WWW is secure, at least for the foreseeable future, it is inevitable that education will stand to benefit as a result of the continuing growth and development of this information-rich environment. The most significant impact is likely to come in the distance education arena where the remote use of advanced teaching materials will reduce costs and enable more students to gain a useful education. The WWW's potential collaborative features will, as they evolve further, offer greater interaction between distance education students.

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