Frank, I have addressed these issues several ways in a 9-week intro-level natural hazards course. In the first week, the students must develop and submit a personal plan for successful completion of the course. This is the first assignment in every on-line course I teach, it makes the students consider the course requirements and their plans for meeting them. It also allows me to see what their expectations are and respond to them. The first week also includes an extended discussion of how hazards are studied. During weeks 2-4 and 6-8, we address a different hazard each week. Students need to answer (with an explanation) these questions (or variations): Would you be willing to live in an area subject to this hazard? What level of risk from this hazard would be acceptable to you? What should a community do to prepare for this hazard? Students discuss this in an asynchronous on-line discussion. The class is divided into groups of six-eight. The discussion is graded, posts must add substantively to the discussion, posts must be made on at least three different days (more than the minimum results in additional points). At the end of the week, each student must submit her/his own response to the question as graded homework. The discussion and homework engage the students because the questions are personal. The students use the text, on-line resource links, and the discussion with other students to develop their own answer. They try to explain and justify their answers to the group and answers typically change over the course of a week as students discuss the material. I provide feedback & grades for each week?s work within one or two days for the first couple of weeks so they understand my expectations and can correct areas where they are deficient. The assignments are parallel for the same reason. In week 5 and week 9, students submit term papers describing how one hazard impacts the area where they live (or would like to live). The students must use their knowledge from the class and collect information from local resources. This challenges the students and also provides practical experience they can use in the future. The week 5 project can be revised and resubmitted prior to the conclusion of the course for a revised grade. (I grade very strictly, so this gives them a chance to make up for deficits in expectations.) The course also meets twice each week in 2nd Life, an on-line virtual world where we meet in a virtual classroom. On Monday, I provide a brief introduction to the week?s topic with powerpoint slides and time for questions. In Friday, we meet again for questions. The 2nd Life meetings are optional, but most students attend. The meetings provide bookends for the week and allow questions to be answered real-time; this allows me to clear up confusion without the time delay of e-mail or the discussion thread. The 2nd Life environment has more of a classroom feel and the students respond well. 2nd Life also has virtual experiences (including a tsunami created by NOAA), a place for office hours and study sessions, and a place for displays of student work (also a requirement for this course). The course develops a rhythm and the discussions in most groups have been excellent. There are always a few students and sometimes a group that does not develop well. Individual students, I try to contact to see if there is a problem. If it is a whole group, I may break up the group and put the members into other groups. I presented a talk on this class at GSA last fall. The PowerPoint slides can be found at: http://www2.ivcc.edu/phillips/talks/map-prof.htm The course materials can be found at: https://lilt.ilstu.edu/maphil3/GEO207/index.htm (Note: The class was 8 weeks, but will be nine the next time I teach it. I felt the mid-term project need to have it?s own week because of the effort required to collect the information.) The students must also attend an orientation session in 2nd Life prior to the beginning of the course to sort out any hardware or software issues. Mike Phillips Geology Professor, Illinois Valley CC Adjunct Geology Instructor, Illinois State Univ.