Introduction

Distance Education has come a long way from its humble beginnings in correspondence courses to an era when we speak of learner centred virtual universities. Over a period of one century, print has been supplemented first by radio; later by television, and more recently by the Internet and the World Wide Web.

Such growth was made possible by an exponential growth in electronics. Technological inputs into distance education started with the simple radio and the transistor which formed the basis for very successful distance programmes in agriculture ( Radio rural forums in Canada and India; School on the air in Latin America). A later development of television enriched distance education by opening the possibilities of incorporating the audio and visual medium and television’s use in education, at least in India received a boost with the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment in 1975. Distance education institutions did not lag behind in their use of the latest media technology available in their efforts to reach out to students irrespective of time and distance, whether in the U.K. Open University or in similar institutions in Germany ( Feruniversitat) ; NHK in Japan; or the Chinese Television University. Broadcast of educational television became more flexible with the use of audio and video cassette recorders enabling anytime study for the learner.

The computer and the satellite converging together paved the way for the Internet and the World Wide Web. Coupled with findings from research into the cognitive and learning sciences, we have now come to an age where web based instruction is an immediate precursor to the virtual university, with Internet as its platform.

The technological possibilities have made collaboration and cooperation a must. It is the purpose of this paper to explore strategies in crucial areas and various mechanisms for collaboration.

Strategies for Pedagogical inputs for Web based instruction

The Internet and the World Wide Web were the outcomes of developments in the Information Technology industry. Pioneering academicians saw the potential of the Internet and World Wide Web, as a rich resource of information to supplement classroom teaching. The more enterprising academics went ahead and began to offer programmes or courses of study on the Internet i.e. web based instruction. However if “instruction can be defined as a purposeful interaction to increase learners’ knowledge or skills in specific, pre-determined ways” ( Critchie & Hoffman-1997)”, then, simply publishing a World Wide Web Page with links to other digital resources does not constitute instruction. “Instructional sequences typically embrace seven common elements: motivating the learner, specifying what is to be learned, prompting the learner to recall and applying previous knowledge, providing new information and offering guidance and feedback, testing comprehension and supplying enri

chment or remediation (Dick& Reiser 1989). With forethought, each of these elements can be incorporated in instruction designed for delivery on the World Wide Web, to ensure that the pedagogical strategies are met. Self learning materials in Distance education typify a scientific effort at incorporating these seven elements. The pedagogy of self learning materials has to be enlarged and adapted keeping the delivery systems ( in this case, the WWW) in constant focus. With pedagogical strategies being met, online courses or web- based instruction is bound to grow in popularity and provide the means for greater access.