Technology Evolves but Basic Ideas Survive

In 1994 four colleagues from different HE institutions in Norway started a collaborative R & D project for net based, open and flexible higher education. The project was named Norway-net with IT for Open Learning (NITOL), with focus on professional and institutional collaboration. Exchange and distribution of learning material through electronic networks were hard to implement in the pre-WWW days, and much attention was given to technical solutions at the early stages. Students’ interest in the project was overwhelming. From 30 students registered in spring 1994, enrolments exceeded 2500 students in fall 1998. NITOL had outgrown the project stage, and the group asked their institutions to take over administration of course activities. Other institutions joined in and the management of a new, national, networked university, NVU, was given to administrative representatives from 9 partner institutions. After a couple of years, however, they decided to close down the joint course activities, and NVU became a forum for exchange of ideas and organisation of annual conferences. The basic principles from NITOL, however, were carried on through international projects on virtual universities, and now nearly 20 years later still seem to be relevant for fruitful collaboration across institutional borders.