In this article, the author describes the current state of research on web-based instruction and posits new directions to expand the current paradigm. Issues of faculty attitude and support toward distance education, instructional immediacy, and the Seven Principles of Good Practice in Undergraduate Education (Chickering and Gamson, 1986) relative to web-based instruction will also be presented as variables in need of further attention in distance education research. Finally, the author describes how the constructs of immediacy and the Seven Principles could expand the current framework of research to include strategies that could better enable instructors to better achieve desired student outcomes in web-based courses.