Cooperative Research and Collaborative Learning
At Malaspina University College in British Columbia, there are two examples of interactive databases that support cooperative research among learners and researchers engaged at the same time in a project, and between subsequent groups of learners and researchers.

In one example, a multimedia application developed in the field of killer whale vocalization has become a huge sound database that each student can use, adding their own input for others. Once sounds are recorded, the user can isolate one segment of sound, make notes about whale behavior for that segment and save that sound and the descriptive notes to a new screen. In this way, users can add to and change the application for other users, as well as build up a dynamic body of research over time.

In the other example, a stream survey database has also been built up over time. Each year, students walk the streambed making video and audio notes of what they observe, link to the GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) and input information into a database. One year, aquaculture students might concentrate on the salmon in the stream, the next year biology students might document the vegetation, a third year students might look at soil structures and so on. Again, the user is customizing the database and making it more and more useful for others, contributing to longitudinal studies.

Women's Studies
At Massey College in New Zealand, a new Women's Studies Program includes an extensive distance education component where all but one core undergraduate course are offered at a distance. Program developers have identified that familiarity with communications technologies like e-mail, file transfer, gopher, the Internet and educational "chat" programs is necessary for their undergraduates.

With access to one-on-one tutoring to help them learn computer skills, first year students are assigned projects that introduce them to online feminist resources with the intent that. by the completion of their studies, they will be able to design and compile databases. "The impetus for this comes from a lack of oral histories of women's lives and the sense that networked knowledge bases that have social issues as their focus may be able to become learning and activist tools of use to both the university and community-based feminists."⁸

Management Training
In the Northwest Territories the government is currently implementing a long term plan to double the representation of Inuit people in the public service. The challenge is to provide the required education and training for learners who are dispersed over a vast area. The Human Resources Planning department has negotiated an agreement between an Inuit group, the federal government, and the NWT. Discouraged by the results of packaged computerized learning without support mechanisms, they have turned to a blend of techniques that combine information/communication technologies and personal support.

The program is centered on management training courses currently offered by the Canadian Centre for Management Development in Ottawa. Participants, all employed adults, spend two and a half weeks per year in a classroom. The rest of the time they keep in touch with instructors bye-mail and use technology to form peer support groups. Mentoring in the workplace and participation in different development assignments are integral parts of the training plan. First impressions are that the initial year is going well; a student evaluation is yet to come.