ABSTRACT
Nearly every institution providing post-secondary education and training in the USA uses, or soon plans to use, the Internet for instruction. As an enabling technology, the Internet offers prospects for improving instructional quality, increasing access and potentially reducing costs – both for on-campus classes and distance learning (Baer, 1998). Some hail the Internet as a catalyst to transform facultycentered instruction into student-centered learning. But others fear that Internet-based education will eliminate essential face-to-face interaction among students and instructors and turn higher education into commoditized packages of standardized courses and degree credits.1
