The server at home model: a distance learning/research model and project implementation on the Web

In 1995, Nova Southeastern University (NSU) formed a research group of post graduate students to study the application of Internet/Web tools for bringing multimedia to the distance learning environment. Scigliano, Levin, and Horne (1995) reported the effort to improve interaction on the NSU distance learning network through some of these new Web tools (e.g. hypertext markup language or HTML). Faculty and students are now authoring with HTML extensively thus developing a nonlinear knowledge base that resides on the NSU server and which facilitates collaborative learning and research. But the very nature of such a collaborative learning environment is that it is not centralized and we see this in the way the Internet is evolving and structured today. Consequently, the multimedia research group formed a special project team to investigate the possibility of distributing the learning environment under a concept known as "server-at-home". This paper reviews the problems and vision that led to the establishment of the project team and how some preliminary results from them spawned an environment of computer supported cooperative work (CSCW) which is being applied in other related research team efforts under the multimedia research group at NSU.