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Conducting an evaluation across a consortium is likely to be a more complex task than evaluating materials at one institution, and guidelines and case histories are needed to contribute to the body of knowledge in this area. The TLTP programme encompasses a considerable number of consortia and this method of sharing the development and dissemination of materials has been encouraged. However, it is difficult to design a representative study and to include a range of institutions when the materials are intended to be flexible and used by teachers in a variety of ways to suit different groups of students and course structures. Further to this, other teaching elements are almost always present in any teaching episode and these cannot easily be separated from the computer aided learning package to which they relate and must therefore be embraced within an evaluation study. In the case of PCCAL, it was also necessary to ensure that the study was representative of a large and diverse body of work. The considerable practical issues involved in operating an evaluation study across a wide geographical area are a further area for careful thought . A number of approaches have been adopted in addressing these issues, such as the TELL consortium evaluation plans (Laurillard, 1994) involving a central evaluator and a number of distributed research assistants. The PCCAL approach is an alternative based upon more limited resources with one evaluator visiting all sites but with the active participation of the local academics, PCCAL representatives and support staff. This approach has proved to be very successful in providing a practical, workable method of evaluating several case studies within a consortium. The following section outlines the approach in more detail.
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