by Bernard Horan, Michael Gardner, John Scott

June 8, 2009 - It was a trip to China that inspired Sun Labs' researcher Bernard Horan to propose the MiRTLE project. While he was there, he was shown around SJTU's Network Education College, a sophisticated teaching environment that provides higher education courses to over 15,000 students across China.

"I'd been invited to visit Shanghai Jiao Tong University as part of a delegation from the University of Essex in the UK, where I'm a Visiting Fellow" said Bernard. "The Director of the NEC, Professor Ruimin Shen, told us of some of the problems he faced trying to enable remote students feel more engaged. It seemed to me that this was a great opportunity to use Project Wonderland...after all, one of the premises of Wonderland is that it can provide a greater sense of presence and engagement for its users."

After receiving funding from Sun's Collaborative Research Organisation, the one-year project began in October 2007. A Technical Report describing the project and its outcomes has recently been published by Sun Labs.