One of the most intriguing uses of the WWW emerges from its potential to foster a sense of community among students who interact for woefully short periods of time in a face-to-face environment. Online communities offer chances to extend the classroom, both in time and space, beyond the traditional brick-and-mortar university.

Moreover, students who might be reticent to contribute to classroom activities, particularly those for whom English is a second language, report that online communities enhance their learning processes. Reasons for this improvement include the chance to think more deeply on topics before committing to an idea in the classroom and the opportunity to gather research to support one's claims.

The university's Alquist Center for Innovative Learning can offer advice on the various integrated packages that offer a range of community-building resources such as threaded discussion, online chat, and interactive quizzes. However, you may wish to employ one of the various off-the-shelf resources available online.

These resources range from simple listserv tools to sophisticated environments that allow participants to alter the "electronic space" of interaction, post images and files, and continue conversations asynchronously. You might wish to select one of these tools from the pulldown menu and develop a tool to be integrated into one of your upcoming courses. As usually, each tool requires some degree of information - at least an email address. Only participate in this exercise to the degree that you feel comfortable; don't submit any information that you feel is private. To add to this collection, please email me the title and address of your suggestion.