TALKING WITH JIMMY - USING ELECTRONIC PUBLICATIONS IN HIGHER-EDUCATION

Electronic publishing (EP) is taken to mean the collection, storage, manipulation and distribution of information held in electronic form, and consumed via a computer VDU screen. EP and computer-mediated communication (CMC) systems are potentially powerful educational tools offering advantages like amplifying teacher and student input, encouraging a resource-based, transactional approach to learning, providing experience of computer-supported cooperative working (CSCW), and enhancing students' feedback and self-monitoring. 'JIMMY', an electronic publishing and communication environment on a Vax minicomputer at Queen Margaret College, Edinburgh, and its use by arts, business and health care students and staff, is described. Work in progress includes providing remote access from clinical placement sites and evaluating the use of CMC for information management education.