Electronic courses: old wine in new bottles?

Offerings of electronic courses and degrees are growing at a surprising rate. Some have surmised that E courses represent the future for higher education and that the traditional university may soon be a relic of the past: do E courses represent a significant improvement over traditional pedagogy for educating students? In this context, 305 questionnaires were sent by e-mail to accounting chairpersons in the USA. A total of 94 usable responses was 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 courses 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 the E course. Additionally, they tended to agree that `̀ the student-to-student and the student-toinstructor interaction that are missing in E courses makes 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 university programs just as correspondence courses have been for decades.