Conclusions

From the experience gained from using Mosaic and the WWW to develop the courseware we conclude the following:

• The courseware packages are easy to develop.
• Students find the packages easy and intuitive to use, and allows them to work at their own pace.
• Our packages are very popular with students and increasingly to a wider audience over the WWW.
• Packages are easily extensible and updatable. Material from the whole WWW can be easily integrated. The ability to use Unix (and other) scripts and to run programs directly means that little is not achievable with careful thought and planning.
• Our courseware has been recognised as a beneficial aid to learning.
• Our department has benefitted from a reduction in manpower resources in support of courses available in hypertext form.
• Courseware can be developed to suit a wide range of disciplines and abilities. ParTeach has been developed with the aim of aiding students outside of computer science - e.g. physics, engineering, biological sciences, chemistry, economics and business oriented courses and even practitioners in industry.

To sum up, we feel that global hypertext-based on-line courseware provides great flexibility for future educational needs and we have extended global resources in this area.

• Acknowlegdements