Virtual Class: Distance Learning for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises in the Spanish Region of Castilla y Leon.

Lifelong learning is becoming a necessity in the new Information Society where everyone, particularly small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), must keep up with new technologies. Education and training are of the most importance in this updating. An interdisciplinary and inter-university work group called "Canalejas" (Spain) has developed a multimedia educational CD-ROM, "Basic Course on Telecommunications for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises," a client-server application which includes the "Virtual Class" distance learning environment and interactive multimedia courses on telecommunication services. This paper addresses the technical and educational issues addressed in developing a multimedia educational CD-ROM, beginning with an overview of the objectives and presentation of the work group, educating for the Information Society/lifelong learning, and new technologies for distance learning. The CD-ROM course is then described, including hardware configuration, distance learning environment, and steps in the multimedia development methodology. Two figures present the user interface. (Author/AEF)