I think that online teaching is a good thing. For one, it expands the pool of eligible students. It also expands the pool of faculty to facilitate these courses. These outweigh the potential for less-than-adequate professors – who should be thoroughly screened and mentored by an accredited university before being permitted to post a course, and who need to be mentored throughout their online teaching tenure. Having never taught beyond work seminars, I can only imagine how difficult structuring an online course must be. This would be daunting, and I would want guidance along the way for both me and my students.
Unfortunately, as both readings brought up, money (for the institution) as an incentive has to be controlled. What I mean is that an institution must have the infrastructure to support professors in this type of education rather than offering a mediocre course because it is good financially. This is a difficult arena to navigate.