IŽd like to know references of online spanish courses offered via
Internet around the world

Hola robwall,

You will find in this official page (Spanish Ministry of Education)
the main online sites to learn Spanish:

http://www.sgci.mec.es/br/cv/int/guiacursos.htm

The first one is the gouvernment official site, the best I think:

http://ave.cervantes.es/

Other web sites mentioned are:

http://www.eshablar.com/
http://www.netlanguages.com/homees/courses/spanishlevel_description.htm
http://www.enst.fr/tandem/learning/idxesp11.html
http://dialang.org/info/spanish/index.htm
http://users.servicios.retecal.es/javier2/index1.htm
http://www.knm.fi/babelnet/main.htm
http://www.hum.gu.se/~romdm/%200.PaginaInicial.html
http://www.donquijote.org/spanish/
http://www.nueva-tierra.com/
http://www.auladiez.com/index.html
http://www.donquijote.org/spanish/index.asp
http://leia.ursinus.edu/~jarana/ejercicios.html
http://www.studyspanish.com/
http://www.learnspanishtoday.com/
http://spanish.miningco.com/msub1.htm

Hope it helps,

Lannaeus