Development of a full degree course on Internet

Building Services Engineering is the study of the effective and efficient utilisation of energy within a building and the provision of a comfortable environment for the residents to work, to live and to have enjoyment. Nowadays, building services engineering becomes a distinctive profession in modern cities due to the dense population and the popularity of ultra-high-rise buildings. In U.K. and Australia, there are extensive degree courses in building services engineering. In China, by 1998, there will be only three degree courses in building services engineering at Bachelor level, two in Hong Kong and one in Shanghai. Subject to the high demand in building services engineers in China and around the world, a comprehensive degree course at undergraduate level in building services engineering is being developed on the Internet so that everyone on the globe is able to take the course and obtain a degree without personally attending classes in Hong Kong. The basic structure of the course and framework of the homepage are described in this paper. The solutions to and implementations of four important issues related to a degree course in general, namely lecture/tutorial, laboratory work, coursework and examination, are highlighted so that these developed techniques can be applicable to the development of other degree courses on the Internet as well.