An Open Distance Learning Web-Course for NLP in IR

A computer-based course addressing the topic of applying Natural Language resources and techniques to Information Retrieval is presented. The course provides several Internet on-line resources to support a learning by doing appr oach in a real world context. Rationale for the design of the course is presented and a detailed description of the course structure and content is given. 1 Introduction There are two traditional distinctions in higher education that are currently on a period of big debate. The first one concerns industrial training vs higher education objectives, the second one is related to the role of emerging technologies for distance learning, potentially blurring the until now clear separation between conventional universities and distance learning Institutions. Changes in both Education and Training contexts are moving closer their previously separate objectives. On one hand, there is much concern about bringing educational curricula more in line with vocational ..