Monitoring the on-line behaviour of distance learning students

Abstract Projects using Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) are becoming of interest to all academic institutions world-wide. STILE (Students' and Teachers' Integrated Learning Environment) is one such project which used a CMC environment with one hundred and ten students and nine tutors in the United Kingdom and Europe. The participants were on-line for a period of ten months in 1995. The course selected was Fundamentals of Computing (M205) which catered for both technical and nontechnical students. The provision of these facilities enabled distance learning students to avail themselves of better communication with their tutor and fellow students and to download extra electronic course materials. They could also send their computer code, created for the course, around electronically. This paper discusses student reactions to the on-line collaborative experience and reports on their collaborative behaviour with respect to the conferencing environment.