ABSTRACT
Universities have been using mainframe and minicomputers to aid teaching and learning for about 20 years at Dartmouth College in the United States, for example, and more recently in the National Development Programme for Computer Assisted Learning in the United Kingdom and at the Open University. This chapter looks instead at microcomputer and interactive videodisc applications, then at computerised databases used for teaching and research. Computers, including microcomputers, are vitally important in higher education because they make possible a wide range of teaching simulations. Microcomputers control interactive videodiscs, of course, and one of the most remarkable examples of development work on interactive videodisc technology for learning in higher education is described by Bolt. Commercial computerised scientific database services such as DIALOG (provided by Lockheed) are now firmly established and essential to higher education, particularly for research but also for postgraduate teaching.
