This presentation shows some of the practical aspects of computational lexicography involved in the process of implementing a bilingual online glossary at the Open University of Hong Kong (OUHK) based on a subject-specific glossary-assisted model (SSGA) with the aim of assisting Chinese learners undertaking English-medium courses in linguistics. The glossary was created using the standard online lexicon editing form designed by Greaves, Director of the Virtual Language Centre (VCL) project. Having logged on to a special server with their usernames and passwords, lexicographers are able to add and edit lexical entries online. The online glossary we have developed is bilingual and contains the following items for each term: The term itself (e.g. Pragmatics), Chinese equivalent, Definition (in English), Comments (e.g.noun), Examples, and Synonyms (if any). The project team also used a CGI web program developed by Greaves to link every word in the study units to VLC online lexicon, thus allowing students to access the lexical entry by simply placing the cursor over a word and double-click. It is well recognized that the speed at which students can absorb the unfamiliar vocabulary will affect the quality of their study and their mastering of the course content. Since the online bilingual glossary facilitates instant access to the meaning and pronunciation of unfamiliar words, much time and effort otherwise student spend in the traditional paper-based lexical search has been reduced. And as the SSGA based online bilingual glossary also integrates vocabulary, lexicon, concordancing and multimedia, our students can benefit from a comprehensive range of resources. The potential for SSGA lies in the application of the methodology tested so far to other courses, especially those from other disciplines such as science, to support students from a Chinese background, and indeed this has been planned for the second phase of the project.

For nearly 30 intakes over 15 years, Charles Sturt University has delivered a distance education course which operates with Australian and, for the last 6 years, Hong Kong students. Since the course has made extensive use of computer based materials as well as computer mediated communication over that time, some valuable lessons have been learnt. While some of these have to do with institutional and management issues, many are about the differences between theory and practice.
The use of computer mediated communication increases workload rather than relieving it as some might suggest. While in some respects, students may feel that they are getting a better service with electronic communications and materials, there is also a severe penalty to be paid.
On balance, this situation favours the use of such technologies but not sufficiently to result in enthusiastic adoption. A key area involves the examination of how effectively the static and dynamic resources are attuned to the educational needs of the students. Activities which force a synchronisation are poorly received compared to ones which operate asynchronously. Similarly, electronic resources which simply replace existing printed material without a large amount of 'value adding', have also been found to be of dubious value.