Friedlander said the Internet puts pressure on professors to keep their course material fresh, and on universities to be able to handle input from students. After lectures, students searched the Web for relevant information or images and discussed their findings in small online groups. Robin Mason, who runs a fully online master's degree program in distance learning at the Open University, said teachers decided to assign specific debating roles to students to bolster participation in online working groups because early sessions tended to be dominated by a few assertive students. Teaching online is more difficult because you don't have control like you do in a classroom. You have to be a facilitator.
Nobody needs to parrot back information.
But Ms. Nugent of Princeton was more cautious, saying the Web may prove useful as more of a research tool than a vehicle for instruction.