The Internet has played a large part in helping universities introduce new distance learning techniques with the introduction of online assessment, bulletin boards, email etc. Nonetheless it can be argued that many distance learning students never fully come to terms with where and who it is that actually ‘deliver’ and ‘manage’ their course and indeed who else in taking the course with them.

Students are however quite quick at ascertaining who their Lecturer is for a particular module. They quite often will meet him in the initial (or only) meeting or will have spoken to them on the phone or corresponding by email. This is excellent however lecturers may sometimes change, lecturers are not always contactable and indeed lecturers have a lot of other commitments and much of the time are actually not very good when dealing with issues outside of the course content. Of course the student has boxes of material gathered over the years from the university but when the student returns to the pile they find contact information for different university departments and campuses such as Jordanstown, Coleraine and/or Magee. Eventually of course due to the excellent people at the UU switchboards, they will locate the relevant personnel to help them but could we somehow through the Internet reduce the geographical confusion with regards to the location of UU full time faculty staff.

This project therefore proposes building 3D real world models of faculty staff offices. Each model will also be place on Google Earth and posted to the Google 3D warehouse in order to allow others to also build further models of UU buildings and corridors. The Google earth component is important as this will allow students to more easily grasp the geographical location of the actual office whether it is located in Coleraine or Jordanstown. Each model will allow a fly through and here we believe that students will actually comprehend who is actually located in the building and who is located in the office next door etc. Virtual classrooms can also be included and the integration of real world pressure sensors on staff chairs could also indicate who is actually in their office although I would understand that this might not be welcome by all staff..... This project can also assist lecturers and other regional UU staff who would also like to have a better feel for who is located where. This should increase the feeling of community among staff and students alike.

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