Education and training are expected to change dramatically due to the combined impact of the Internet' and mukimedia technologies.In th~transitional era, we are faced with a di-Iemma: do we design distance learning systems with the present or the Mure in mind?Common sense teIls us that users are more likely to accept innovation if they perceive it as arisiig from within a familiar conte~and therefore we should look to the present for modeIs.But if we cIing to current modeIs, how WI we ever discover and Iearn to expIoit the unique possibilities that surely exist within this marriage?We can design with both the present and the future in mind by using a platform that utilizes a familiar model to start with, but alIows experimentation as users become more comfortable with the technology.The familiar 1 Unlessotherwisenoted we use the term 'Tntemet"in this paper to includeIntranetsas weIL Permission to make digital or hard copies of all orparr of lh~work for personal or classroom use is granted wirhout fee provided ~hat copies are nor made or distnbured for profh or mmmercial advamage, and that copies bear ~h~no~iceand the full citation on the firsI page.TOCOPY olherwise,to republii~to post on servers .. or 10 redisrribrne 10 lisrs, requires prior specific permission andlor a fee.AChi Multimedia'98, Bristol, UK (0 1998 ACM 1-58113-0368198{0008 S5.oo model is that of a course taught by a live instructor using a chzssroom, augmented by other environments.Designing with the future in mind means allowing course designers to experiment with any aspect of this environment they choose to alter.How a virtual room pkztj60rm can be used to achieve this degree of flexibility is a subject for a future paper.In this paper, we discuss an interactive multimedia system called PERSYST that provides the sort of famiIiar environment described above for on-line courses.PERSYST has been used in several distance learning trials; we close this paper with a discussion of the trials and what we have learned from them.1.1