At the University of Birmingham, Information Services, together with the Staff Development Unit and the Learning Development Unit have been working together to set up a number of initiatives to support staff to use WebCT to underpin its learning and teaching strategy within a flexible framework. The framework seeks to invest in developing appropriate skills and training for University staff to ensure that the quality of the content and the communication tools within the WebCT environment are fully exploited to enhance the student learning experience. Developments include the establishment of an e‑Learning module, team based projects from the Learning Development Unit and a WebCT training and support pathway.

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.