The Internet has finally come of age and has been recognised as a force to be taken very seriously indeed in the quest to deliver anytime anywhere educational opportunities for anyone.

Lifelong Learning and the Information Society are topics high on the political agenda within Europe. This in turn has spawned various national initiatives and reports, such as the "National Grid for Learning", the "Learning Age" and the "New Library: the People's Network" in the UK. The Internet is seen as the foundation of the National Grid for Learning. UK Government funding has recently been made available to provide training for teachers and librarians to empower them to use the Internet in their role as educators, and to develop quality learning resources for this National Grid.

Is the Internet ready for this prime time? Are the expectations of the politicians ahead of reality? Are our educators equipped with the skills needed to create interactive Internet-based learning materials? Do our students have the necessary access to these materials? Is the pedagogy
sound?

There are many such questions to be asked, and some cannot be answered except by simply trying it and gaining practical experience.

This presentation will look at the experience in the UK higher education community where Web-based learning is becoming more and more important as student numbers rise, and the emphasis shifts from teaching to learning.

Use of the Web has moved from its traditional information delivery role, whereby a lecturer's notes are simply placed online, to the support of all aspects of the learning process. That is:
- information delivery
- showing examples to illustrate the learning point
- practice of the new skills by the student
- the opportunity for reflection and discussion
- provision of guidance
- self testing
- and formal assessment.
Where possible, live demonstrations of some examples of learning resources will be shown.

Staff development for our academic staff in the necessary skills is extremely important to provide them with the confidence to embrace these new technologies. The need for a national staff development programme and some of the other issues involved in moving to Internet learning will be explored.