General Technology Principles and Politics
------------------------------------------
1) The IPG (Information Power Grid) will evolve to support
   NASA activities as NASA Mission Grid (web) services
   e.g. The USRA CSOC activity should (but won't for a long time
   with current approach) become Space Operations as a Grid Service
   For Langley (Ames) we should build Aerospace Engineering as a
   Grid Service. This is a composite service with a lot of basic
   services (such as CFD simulation or mesh generation or
   visualization accessed from a Web Portal)
   which can be linked together for multidisciplinary activities
  
2) Education is/will become a Grid Service which for this case
   should link to NASA Mission Grid Services so we can show
   students "real aircraft design" and "real mission control" etc.

3) The Grid Forum will help enable 1)

4) The Learning Object standards of IMS and ADL (SCORM) will be
   used together with broader Grid (Web) standards (WSDL, UDDI,
   SMIL, SVG, SOAP etc.) to produce interoperable Education 
   Components both for Services and Objects (curriculum pages,
   user records etc.)
   http://www.adlnet.org
   http://www.imsproject.org

This vision cannot be fully implemented today as several key technologies
immature but should be the guiding principle of architecture and implementation

Best practice today is exemplified by
Learning Management
-------------------
Blackboard
WebCT

Shared Resources for Realtime delivery
--------------------------------------
Centra
Placeware
WebEx

Audio-Video Conferencing
------------------------
Access Grid (from Argonne and NCSA)
CUSeeMe
HearMe
PictureTel
Polycomm

VOIP market and SIP standard critical in A-V conferencing area
All these commercial systems have obvious web pages
See http://aspen.csit.fsu.edu/collabtools/CollabReviewmay09-01.doc for review
and links 

I have research activities and involvement with a startup
company (Anabas) in these areas
See http://aspen.csit.fsu.edu/collabtools/erdc/

A Technical Model for Distance Education
----------------------------------------
1) Curricula are built as a suite of Web Pages which can be authored
   with lots of different tools from simple HTML to PowerPoint to MacroMedia Director
2) Learning Management Systems "manage" these Web Pages and also student
   data -- personal, performance(grades), homework etc. Online quizzes are supported
3) Pages and associated resources (quizzes, grades etc.) can be viewed asynchronously
   (in their own time ) by students and/or delivered in real time by systems like Centra
   There can be specialized resources such as electronic versions of laboratories.
4) Audio-Video Conferencing is used in such realtime delivery and this is either built in
   to tools like Centra or added to "shared resource delivery system"
5) Both realtime (synchronous) and asynchronous learning supported by collaborative tools
   (whiteboard, text chat, Instant Messenger, Bulletin Board, News Groups etc.) IMHO
   the emerging field of P2P (Peer to Peer Networks) will provide framework for these
   community building and support tools. They include sophisticated information discovery
   and sharing capabilities

A Curricula Model for Distance Education
----------------------------------------
There is a partnership of multiple organizations -- universities, technical support,
management support and specialized capability organizations.

Students get a degree from one university which is fully responsible for
intellectual integrity of curriculum and managing the different components
of the educational experience. All credits gotten for degree come 
from this university. This university certifies quality of courses and other
components of experience

The learning experiences includes
a) Electronic Resource described above under "Technical Model".
   Resources contained here include "Shareable Courseware" (SCORM of ADL)
   and can be delivered by any member of partnership
b) The asynchronous browsing of resources and (possibly) the traditional
   real time delivery. Again real-time delivery (and support of questions etc. about resource)
   can be responsibility of any member of partmnership
c) Mentoring of students. This personal experience can have electronic components
   but is most naturally responsibility of organization co-located with students.
   This need NOT be university granting degree
d) Assesment and feedback.

Fiscal Model
------------
We have tuition income plus any additional funds from "NASA" to grease the wheels.
With enough students and in steady state, there is no reason this should cost
more than traditional education -- it could be cheaper.
These dollars need to be distributed in a fair fashion (role of managing partner!)