ABSTRACT
SUMMARY The Internet, or Information Superhighway, has revolutionised contact between people in the past decade. Distance education is being altered beyond recognition by computer-mediated communication (CMC), and traditional on-campus education will certainly also be influenced by the flexibility it offers. CMC may be used in several different ways:
As a communication support system, it can add a convenient time and place independent means for students and tutors to contact each other, either individually via e-mail or for group discussions by computer conferencing, whether for on-campus or distance courses.
As a pedagogic system in itself, it can form an adjunct to traditional courses, by enabling seminar discussions that are otherwise inconvenient to timetable, or it can itself be the backbone of a course, particularly a distance course.
Asa delivery system, it transmits text or multimedia materials to onsite or remote students, for self-study or group work.
