This paper presented two Music departments' experiences of the use of IT in seminar work. Both departments are heavily involved in the development of multimedia CAL for Music. They feel, however, that the integration of IT into university education can go beyond the introduction of CAL tutorial material and is a very effective facilitator in the more interactive setting of the seminar. Two quite different systems have been implemented. Both have resulted in an improvement in the quality of students' work and have generated enthusiasm and increased motivation in the students themselves.
Glasgow's 'NetSem' is a system of email conferencing incorporating conventional email, word & music notation processing and sound & graphics packages. It is used for seminars in music history and has been seamlessly integrated with the rest of the course. Participation is compulsory for those students taking the 20th century history course and forms part of their overall assessment.
In contrast, Lancaster gives all students a short computer induction course, including a session in the music technology studio and access to a private conference on the student-run LuBBs bulletin board. Use of IT is an optional part of their life and work in the department. Lancaster's novel system of seminars, with its emphasis on independent group work and presentation, offers an ideal opportunity for such self-motivated integration.
For both departments, the seminar system and the use of the technology was described and the teaching aims were outlined. Examples of the students' computer-prepared work was presented and led into a brief overview of the results of the formal and informal evaluation processes which have been carried out.
An extensive description of NetSem was published in Musicus 4 (Duffy, Arnold & Henderson 1995). A full copy of Lucy Warren's paper is published next.