The Internet can be a useful tool that can enhance interactivity in classes. Accordingly, offering distance learning courses using the Web, especially in the asynchronous mode for the additional flexibility of time, is becoming an established practice in higher education. Web‑based distance learning comes with numerous benefits, but not without worries for potentials deficiencies. One such deficiency in the current distance learning framework is the lack of lecture, the most relied‑upon and proven means o f instruction in the traditional classroom settings. This paper raises an issue of the lack of lectures in Web‑based distance learning, and proposes that streaming video take the role of online lecture in that setting. Described in this paper are the rati onale to put the lecture back into e‑learning in higher education, two case studies in which the steps were taken to implement the proposed method, and the feedback from the students who took such courses in the undergraduate business curriculum and the M BA program.

At the University of Toronto at Scarborough, we provide enhanced flexibility to our students using a blended learning approach (i.e., the webOption) whereby classes are videotaped as they are offered in a traditional manner, then posted online for subsequent student access. Students can attend lectures live, watch them online at their convenience, or both. Previous research examining the webOption in the context of Introductory Psychology revealed that (a) students were satisfied with the webOption in general, (b) students used and appreciated the pause and seek features afforded by the webOption interface, and (c) those who used the pause and seek features performed slightly better on exams (Bassili & Joordens, 2008). The current research examines similar issues in the context of two mathematics courses. These courses differ from the lecture‑based Introductory Psychology class in their emphasis on the teaching of mathematical proofs; cognitive skills that, like any other skill, are enhanced with practice (Schneider & Shiffrin, 1977). Access to online lectures allows students to re‑experience the professor as they teach these skills. Given this, the webOption might be especially potent in these learning contexts. Surprisingly, the results we report here do not confirm that prediction. Students do use and appreciate the features of the webOption as was the case in our previous work, but those students who augmented their class attendance with online viewing, and those who used the lecture‑ control features the most, were actually the students who performed most poorly. Said another way, those students who had the most trouble with the course did indeed use the webOption as a way of understanding the material better but, interestingly, doing so did not result in better performance. Several possible reasons for this surprising result are considered.