On Wednesday 30 August, 1995, a presentation titled 'Remote Access - Towards the Borderless University' was delivered by Mr Keith Heale, Head of the Network Region in the Monash Computer Centre.
Mr Heale was introduced by Mr Jack Chorowicz, Associate Director of the Computer Centre, who, in his introduction spoke of the dramatic increase in demand by the public for access to the Internet and the World Wide Web, and the pressures this creates for service providers, including those who manage the Monash network infrastructure. He reminded the audience of the fact that we are in a competitive environment, that courses offered electronically to students will become more common, and that Monash must increasingly play a part in this activity. Keith's role as head of the network region is expected 'to have an important impact in making the borderless university a possibility for the future'.
Keith, speaking with the support of PowerPoint slides, began by saying that 'these are first steps towards changing our way of thinking about the University and its role and the way it interacts with its user community...' and he stressed the high level of importance that the University is attaching to dramatically improving remote access by staff and students.
With reference to the second slide in his PowerPoint file, Keith defined what he understands as 'remote access' - that is, access from a single work station (PC) somewhere off campus, tapping into the university's computer systems or computer network through some kind of a link set up for that purpose. This currently would include the use of dial-up modems. Current technology allows access to almost anything that is available through the ethernet network covering all of the campuses, but the actual access that can be provided is limited by whatever university poilicies are in place at any particular time...
[Keith's spoken presentation was recorded on audio tape, and a cassette of this recording can be accessed by contacting Bob Thompson in the Professional Development Centre - email Robert.Thompson@adm.monash.edu.au . If you loosely synchronize Keith's PowerPoint slides, also available from Bob, whilst listening to this tape, you will gain a good appreciation of the content he presented.]
Keith has since reported that further developments include:
The HEPCIT Steering Committee thanks Keith Heale for his presentation, which brought us up to date with the Computer Centre's plans (at the time) for provision of an expanded dial-in service, and for making access easier for people who are technically not as well informed.
For further information, please make direct contact with Mr Heale.
Phone (03) 9905 4768; E-mail Keith.Heale@cc.monash.edu.au