Networked Multi-user and Multimedia Environments for Learning and Collaboration

The dramatic increase in the popularity of the Internet, largely brought about by the World Wide Web, has significantly increased the need for environments to support remote collaboration, learning, and research. Existing network technologies can be used to partly service the requirement for self-paced teaching, but a greater level of tool integration is needed to support directed learning and collaboration. This paper discusses work done to marry traditional text-based conferencing with the facilities available through a graphical World Wide Web browser. The uses and needs of reconfigurable multimedia-based ‘virtual’ environments are explored, suggested from experience in producing a prototype development.