Allow me to offer a specific and quite egregious example. That in itself is problematic when one considered Internet-based courses. Now how in the world are we to apply that rule to courses that are offered over the Web, when there is usually no regularly scheduled instruction at all. The third area of recommendations involves investment and resources. I have already made the point that Internet education is an expensive business.
Several points follow from that.
Much of the funding support in the past, from the Department of Education, from foundations, and from other sources, has been project based. Given the need for total institutional involvement and for significant capacity building, it is critical that future funding be focused on supporting the kind of institutional structures and arrangements that I discussed earlier in my testimony. Let me go back to another funding issue that I alluded to earlier. With no intervention, the Internet, in my judgement, will merely expedite market forces in terms of which programs and courses are offered. Yet, clearly there is a public good to be achieved in insuring that other programs that respond to important societal needs are able to take advantage of the access provided by Internet education.