The way of dknaack does not work for me, I found this solution as well:
@Html.DropDownList("Chapters", ViewBag.Chapters as SelectList,
"Select chapter", new { @onchange = "location = this.value;" })
where
@Html.DropDownList(controlName, ViewBag.property + cast, "Default value", @onchange event)
In the controller you can add:
DbModel db = new DbModel(); //entity model of Entity Framework
ViewBag.Chapters = new SelectList(db.T_Chapter, "Id", "Name");