Enabling Distance Education over the World Wide Web

The recent advancements in the field of the information and communication technology resulted in a revolution comparable to the industrial revolution. The basis of this revolution is the information and the value it has as the pure expression of human knowledge. The technological advancements offer us the ability to process, store, retrieve and transmit information in multiple formats (text, sound, image, video) independently of time, volume and distance. In this paper we present the technology that is required and an architecture for the realization of distance education over the World Wide Web. We also address some basic aspects of the users' needs that every software tool for distance education should meet.