Online optimists 1

While sharing with Alison Wolf a dislike for much bullet-point exhortatory verbiage, I would like to speak up for e-learning (Opinion, THES , August 22).

E-seminars can lead to excellent and thoughtful interactions and build up a global community of learners, linking experts to whoever wishes to study with them. Having run a web-based distance-learning Buddhist studies MA for a year now, I have found it stimulating and enjoyable.

While it is time consuming and thus not a way to save money, it can lead to increased recruitment.

Peter Harvey
University of Sunderland