JISC

The system provided a framework to support new and potentially far reaching communication methods for group working. It extended the possibility for peer group learning, not only to those students within computer science, but also to those in other disciplines.

Introduction

In 1995, the Computer Science Department at the University of Wales Aberystwyth began developing and operating, an on-line Remote Advisory Service where students were able to obtain assistance without leaving their workstation. Students were able to use two workstation rooms on different parts of the campus to access an advisor anywhere in the Computer Science Department.

The Remote Advisory Service not only helped the department provide an efficient service to an ever-increasing body of students, but also opened the possibility of providing expertise from outside the department, perhaps from other universities or from experts in industry.

The system provided a framework to support new and potentially far reaching communication methods for group working. It extended the possibility for peer group learning, not only to those students within computer science, but also to those in other disciplines. Indeed it was thought that using this technology, group working could be made available to those for whom costs of communication would have previously made it prohibitive.

The Remote Advisory Service was an adaptation of freely available technology, originally developed for multicast use (see Section 0), packaged together to provide an integrated facility which provides full support of a one:many or many:many advisor to student ratio.

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