Solstra allows students and tutors to engage in live chat and threaded news groups, and has facilities for assessment, records of progress and skills profiles. Johansson believes that besides testing the student's knowledge, assessment should probe learning styles and what the student wants to learn. 'We are looking at not just just-in-time learning but just-enough,' Johansson says.

Ted Sanders, co-chairman of the National Educational Research Policy and Priorities Board who helped draft the report, said: 'We need to understand how to develop just-in-time learning strategies that last a lifetime, so that learning opportunities can be structured and delivered exactly when the individual needs them — whether a young child in school or an adult in the workplace.'

The new flexible space created in the curriculum by the 20% rollback in technical requirements would be used in very different ways by different engineering schools. Following their tradition of diversity, some might focus on advanced specialized technical training; … some might experiment with radical departures from conventional curricula such as "just in time learning."