Electronic courses: old wine in new bottles?

Offerings of electronic courses and degrees are growing at a surprising rat e. Some have surmised that E courses represent the future for higher educat ion and that the traditional university may soon be a relic of the past: do E courses represent a significant improvement over traditional pedagogy fo r educating students? In this context, 305 questionnaires were sent by e-ma il to accounting chairpersons in the USA. A total of 94 usable responses wa s received. Nearly 65 per cent of the respondents indicated that E courses are simply correspondence courses presented with new technology. Those who view E courses as correspondence courses are more negative on offering E co urses in university programs or offering degrees through the completion of only E courses, They are also more restrictive with E courses, favoring the proctoring of exams and requiring students to come to campus as part of th e E course. Additionally, they tended to agree that "the student-to-student and the student-to-instructor interaction that are missing in E courses ma kes them less valuable to the student." instead of viewing E courses and E degrees as the "university of the future", they see them as adjuncts to uni versity programs just as correspondence courses have been for decades.