His institution doesn't have an extensive computer system, almost all of the students live off the campus, and many do not own computers. He notes, however, that information often can be more accessible on computers than in university buildings. The Web is always open. The three classes that Hunter has put on the Web this semester are an experiment to see if they are worth the time and effort of converting documents, he says. The college plans to survey the 750 student participants on their reaction to the service.
Professors say another potential problem is the fallibility of the technology.
Susan M. Blanchard, an associate professor of biological and agricultural engineering at North Carolina State University, who has put her class on line, says a power failure brought an end to her demonstration of class Web pages one day. Other professors are concerned with how much information they can legally place on the Web. Some subjects, such as history or classics, use older materials that are in the public domain. In other disciplines, publishers own the rights to many texts and images, and they don't want professors sharing them with the world at no charge. I don't want to get my school in trouble.