Dr. Lynette Gillis was engaged to conduct a full-scale quality assessment and to investigate the economic and pedagogical benefits of one of the first extensive online post-secondary collaborative course on a multi-university rocket science project. The project involved an unprecedented alliance of university faculties (from five leading Canadian Universities), the aerospace industry, and government.

The University Space Network (USN) Pilot Project is a unique multi-institution collaboration established in 1995 to develop and offer a multimedia-based course in Spacecraft Systems Design. The university participants of USN are the University of Western Ontario, University of Windsor, Ryerson Polytechnical University, Queen's University, and Royal Military College of Canada. University of Toronto and York University are affiliated, and University of Guelph and Lakehead University observed.

Content specialists at the participating institutions developed multimedia courseware modules. Teams of students at each site work collaboratively on a major spacecraft design project, drawing on the multimedia courseware, the Internet, textbooks, and email communication with the content experts. There were no formal lectures or tutorials. The site coordinators acted as facilitators rather then instructors.

The student teams achieved outstanding results with minimal supervision.. The groups worked very effectively by consensus, without a designated leader, and all students contributed equally to the team effort. Assessment of individual marks was difficult, and it was agreed by consensus that all team members should receive the same team mark.

[[Conclusion from original report]]