Lecturers for the most part welcome this technology as it allows one to have a central repository of notes that are visible to students on campus and remotely through the Web. Web publishing also enables students to locate additional course information, such as assignments, quite easily through a lecturer's Web site. Lab-based tutorials allow students to access the campus LAN from a computer lab and work through a scheduled lesson stored on a given Web server. Typical coursework in a networks module would include exercises in the creation of Web pages, java programming, and the use of trace route applications. A student would either print the lesson or have the lesson active on the desktop while attempting to complete the lesson.
Problems do arise for a variety of reasons and students require access to assistance.
This can come in the form of post-graduate demonstrators who are present in the lab during the class or indeed the lecturer. To counter these problems, we have implemented a Web-based collaboration environment called Helpmate. They can also browse the relevant lesson's chat room to see if their problem has been encountered by other classmates or post a question to the class. The lecturer can also take control of a given student's computer, configuring settings and running programs from the luxury of the office. The toolkit is on trial in the University of Ulster at present.