While information can certainly be transferred via internet, one point that strikes me as needing to be addressed here is testing and degree giving. I for one will be surprised if society is evenly remotely ready to give the same sort of recognition to internet degrees as it currently does to brick and mortar ones.
Maybe that will come, though, I know that there are quite a few relatively informal classes being held via the internet already. But while very large classes can surely be held on the internet as easily as in an auditorium, I think there is not much doubt that a human professor makes lots of difference in classes where there is personal interaction. Perhaps the right way to do it is to combine some brick and mortar schooling with the internet. For instance, well paid professors could travel, meeting periodically with internet students over quite large areas of the country, personally checking their work and testing, etc. Something like this clearly seems a good idea for non degree classes that would be of interest, if for no other reason that it would be a revenue raiser. And if it would work for non degree classes, why not for degree as well? So I guess I am saying that the universities themselves would likely be pioneers in internet curricula. Which would in turn open things up to potential competitors.
On a side note, it seems to me like the art departments of the two local universities, UM and FSU, are already disappearing. But, considering that art departments (in the cause of not stifling "creativity") have consciously avoided teaching their students any skills, how to draw, paint, or sculpt, for 30 some years now (which means that today's crop of art professors don't actually know how to do those things very well either), it's not surprising that the departments themselves are disappearing. After all, one can stay home and avoid learning how to do those things just as easily, and much more cheaply, than going to university. At some point, the shallowness of the degree has to become apparent.
Other university departments often take a parallel course, rather than keeping alive and educating about the traditons of Western Civilization, they can be more concerned with the destruction of those traditions.
If modern universities are more concerned with tearing down than with building, at some point there very likely will be a replacement for them. Although IMO, it's really unpredictable what form the replacement will take, or where it will come from.
There are several issues that have been raised here. One is testing. I am contemplating such an online course in Art Appreciation and I think I would use take-home essay exams. (Timed exams online are another option.) Then there is always the question of who really wrote the exam. Of course, you can have that question even in regular classrooms. But if you know the personality of the students (i.e. through discussion groups on line etc.) you can tell if they have indeed written the exam. I'm not sure that I know too many professors with the energy to travel to meet students and grade work there.
I think it would be hard to have studio art classes on line. At an advanced level, students can work on their own and meet periodically with the professor. But at all levels you need to see the real work in order to have an intelligent group critique. And at the basic levels, the professor needs to be there to correct perspective flaws, etc.
But I think there will always be a need for brick and mortar classrooms; that's where the best interaction and discussions will happen between professors and students.
But it will be interesting to see how new technology will change some classes. I think the ipod is an interesting idea, but for art history it really helps to be in class to see the works discussed.