Different band-limited approaches to web supported learning MARJAN KRASNA, D.Sc., Center for computer science and multimedia in education, Faculty of Education, University of Maribor, SLOVENIA DANILO KORZE, D.Sc., System Software Laboratory Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Maribor, SLOVENIA Abstract: In today’s world new knowledge is produced very fast and if we are trying to be at the top we have to update learning material every year. Traditional book printing is too time consuming and too costly for frequently updating. For this reason we put one of the most important thing in the distant education - learning material to the Internet. There is no prescription how to do this nor which technology to use for producing Internet learning material. We are presenting two different approaches. One is the oldest known to the Internet (pure HTML) and the other one is one of the newest (Java applets). The first approach is used in the environment where students have almost no programming experience and the other is for computer science students. We highly recommend using the technology that allows students to actively participate in updating learning material – “live” learning material. We found that it is no universal prescription, which would tell us, when to use Java applets in practice. Key-Words: web supported learning, distance learning, Java, HTML 1. Introduction In today’s world, we need to provide students with easy accessible teaching material [1]. Traditional way is too slow and costly. The alternative is teaching material in the form of Internet web pages. These web pages play the major role in the process of distance learning. Web pages have some advantages and some disadvantages. The same needs appear in different universities all over the World. It is difficult to choose the technology for making Internet learning material. Some are in favor of script languages, other prefers applets, and some likes pure html. No matter which technology you chose it is important that you do something. We are facing today’s technology limits. Individual user has no chance to get the high performance Internet connection needed to access new multimedia learning material [2]. The price for Internet connection is just too high. High performance Internet connection is mostly in a form of Intranet bounded with the walls of the universities. We have to consider this fact. Internet learning material has to be prepared in such a way that even a student with low speed Internet connection can access it. We present the two different scenarios of achieving this task. 2 Faculty of Education scenario In the first scenario, we need to establish a new studying subject. It was decided that every student of the Faculty of Education has to gain the knowledge of multimedia. Today's equipment allows teachers to use multimedia as a teaching tool in almost every part of teaching process. Since it was the first time this studying course was held at our university we have no previous experience. Completely new approach gives us some problems and some advantages. One of the greatest advantages was preparing a study material.