The “Paperless Astronomy Classroom” was instituted at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania in the fall semester of the 1985–1986 academic year.

The goal of this endeavor was to teach an elementary and some advanced astronomy courses “on line” with the use of multiple terminals supported by a Digital VAX 11/785. Currently the system used is a clustered VAX system using two VAX 11/785’s and one VAX 8550.

The procedure of the “paperless classroom” eliminates the need for the transfer of paper between professor and students (homework, exams, supplementary handouts) in the first phase and eliminates the need for a textbook in the second phase.

An equally important goal is to provide additional enhancement for the student that may not be convenient or easily available from a textbook and the traditional classroom. Such an enhancement is series of large data bases, some of which can be the small data bases that traditionally appear in the appendices of textbooks. Another example might be a data base of graphs and charts (e.g., H-R diagrams, periodic table, abundance tables and graphs, binding energy curves, etc.).