Lectures in a large psychology course were taped and posted online where they could be viewed by streaming video. All students in the course had the option to attend lectures or watch them online, a choice that could be exercised on a lecture-by-lecture basis. The proportion of lectures watched online revealed that students chose between face-to-face and online lectures on the basis of their perception that the information richness of the medium. Students also chose a medium to the extent that they perceived others to favor it. When asked what medium they would use to watch lectures in various subject areas, students opted for face-to-face lectures when they anticipated the learning content to be difficult. The symbolism associated with the two media was not related to media choice. (Contains 4 tables and 1 figure.)