Course content or the instructor: which is more important in on‐line teaching?

Explores the impact and relative importance of course content and the role of the instructor on measures of effectiveness for online courses. Uses items from a standard questionnaire to form measures of the quality of course content, the instructor’s role in facilitating the course and a number of global effectiveness measures. Suggests that the results vary depending on the global effectiveness measure being assessed, and identifies the questions which are of greatest importance.