REQUIREMENTS ANALYSIS AND DESIGN FOR A FLEXIBLE LEARNING-ON-DEMAND SYSTEM

Interactive distance learning (IDL) is an evolving paradigm of instruction and learning that attempts to overcome both distance and time constraints found in traditional classroom learning. The electronic classrooms at two sites of the University of Oslo and two further sites in Norway overcome separation in space by exchanging digital audio, video, and whiteboard information using the national academic ATM network. However, a limitation of these classrooms, respectively this type of application, is that it is limited to synchronous IDL, i.e., the students must be present in one of the classrooms during the lecture. To overcome this limitation we currently develop a Learning-on-Demand (LoD) system to provide asynchronous learning capabilities to the electronic classroom. With such a system, students will be able to follow lectures from networked PCs whenever they want. Based on today's electronic classroom, we analyze the requirements for such an LoD system, describe its design, and present the current state of our work. INTRODUCTION Interactive distance learning (IDL) is an evolving paradigm of instruction and learning that attempts to overcome both distance and time constraints found in traditional classroom learning. According to (Noam 1995), a large shift in the role of the university is about to happen: "many of the physical mega universities ... are not sustainable, at least not in their present duplicative variations." He predicts that in "ten years from now a significant share of conventional mass education will be offered commercially and electronically". Learning-on-Demand (LoD) is one valuable approach for IDL and it extends conventional educational programs, as it introduces the idea of learning by doing. This creates an environment where learners have the necessary tools (computational or otherwise) to explore different