ABSTRACT
SUMMARY Recent advances in information technology have dramatically enhanced the quality and value of computer-based hypermedia learning resources. Access to such resources is also rapidly improving with the use of local networking and Internet facilities, giving rise to genuinely flexible materials.
However, successfully developing and exploiting such resources requires a very special support environment. Advice and help need to be available on a host of different topics ranging from highly technical hardware problems, through how to use different software packages, to the essentials of screen design.
Using experiences from Exeter University’s IT Services, this chapter explores what sorts of facility are needed and how these may be developed and maintained effectively, while addressing the traditional problems of cost, time and staffing.
Although aimed at offering practical solutions to support problems, this chapter also raises fundamental questions about how and why we exploit IT resources for teaching and learning and, indeed, whether we should exploit them in the first place! It is a ‘flattened’ version of a hypermedia presentation: some elements of the original have therefore been lost in the squashing process (in particular the images and cross-referencing). The hypermedia version can be obtained by file transfer protocol (ftp) from ftp.ex.ac.uk. in the BETTS directory.
