The Web is not yet suitable for learning

Many sites on the Web refer to themselves as courses. Doing so is popular at present, with an ever increasing number of these courses cropping up everywhere. In some universities, administrators pressure the faculty to provide such courses without offering guidelines for how the Internet might best be used for learning. We've looked at many such courses and come away greatly disappointed. Most of these courses provide little in the way of interaction. Our concern is with situations in which the Web site is intended to be the primary delivery method for learning, not when it is a supplement to learning delivered mainly in other ways, such as through lectures. We are not suggesting that other ways of delivering learning-such as through lectures-are adequate. Distance learning is an important approach for future education, but not as it is currently delivered on the Web.