Background
         Distance education, especially web-based instruction, is a viable means to enhance information catering to professionals and workers to keep abreast with the changing workforce and provide greater impetus in the area of continuing education. Due to the status reports provided by the 10th ASTINFO Consultative Meeting, Regional Seminar/Workshop on Information Education Strategies for the 21st Century, held in Beijing, China from September 18 - 19, 1995 and the Consultative Meeting and Workshop in Planning Human Resource Development for Information Societies, held in Bangkok, Thailand from March 3 - 7, 1997, the following courses of action were recommended on a regional basis.
         1. The need to retool and upgrade the skills of librarians who are already on stream in such areas as computing and telecommunications, in order to improve the quality of information services.
         2. The need to develop distance learning packages on specific topics to meet high priority training needs.
         3. The meeting also agreed that distance learning is a mode that can be used for continuing education of information professionals and workers. (UNESCO and STOU 1997: 14-18)
         Amidst the information revolution and the amount of information at our fingertips, knowledge about effective and efficient access to information and the ability to retrieve information are a necessity.  Information Retrieval (IR) techniques have been developed for text and non-text information and are becoming very important. They vary from basic to advanced skills. To support the mentioned recommendations, and as information retrieval is one area of interest to librarians and information workers as well as library and information users, the researchers decided to develop this project. The research aims at the junior library workers and users in developing countries to provide guidance for them in conducting their own searches.
         In addition, the evolution of information and communication technologies has presented a number of problems and challenges for policy-makers and administrators in the higher education field. A particularly important issue is the existence of 'digital divides', both among and within nations. In response to such issues, UNESCO with the support of Prof. Wang Yibing (Specialist in Higher Education) initiated a project for the establishment of a Greater Mekong Subregion Virtual University (GMS-VU). The initial workshop on Feasibility Study for Establishment of Greater Mekong Subregion Virtual University (GMSVU), held at STOU in August 2001, identified Tourism, ICT and Mekong Studies as the first three fields of common interest that would form the components of a pilot project.
         The GMS-VU pre-pilot project proposed by collaboration of the GMS countries had the following outcomes:
                  1) A virtual campus model adapted to the national context, including descriptions of organizational, functional and technical aspects. (Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University (STOU) 2004)
                  2) A prototype e-learning module installed on the VClass system and
a method for evaluating the module for the GMS-VU pre-pilot project.

Objective of the project
         To develop a web-based self-training package for information retrieval using the distance education approach.

Sponsorship
         IFLA-ALP (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions-Advancement of Librarianship Program) ALP. Project No. 246

Researchers
         1. Associate Professor Dr. Chutima Sacchanand, Head of the project
                Position: Associate Professor in Information Science, School of Liberal Arts, Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University, Thailand
                Educational background:
                        EdD Charles Sturt University, Australia
                        M.L.S. (Information Science), University of the Philippines
                        M.A. (Library Science), Chulalongkorn University, Thailand
                        B.A. (Library Science), Chulalongkorn University, Thailand
         2. Associate Professor Dr. Vipa Jaroenpuntaruk
                Position: Associate Professor in Information Technology, School of Science and Technology, Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University
                Educational background:
                        Ph.D. (Computer Science), Illinois Institute of Technology, U.S.A.
                        M.S. (Computer Science), Chulalongkorn University, Thailand
                        B.S. (Statistics), Chulalongkorn University, Thailand

Project team
         1. Technical assistants: Mrs. Weraya Pumpuang, Office of Documentation and Information, Miss Nongluck Matvangsaeng, Office of Computer Services and Mr.Hasanai Riyaphun, Office of Continuing Education, Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University, Thailand
         2. Graphic assistant: Mrs. Suthinan Hoksun, Office of Computer Services, Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University, Thailand
         3. Editor: Mr. Robin Charlesworth, Foreign Relations Unit, Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University, Thailand
         4. Voice Over by Charissa Chan