Asynchronous communication tools like listservs and newsgroups pro-vide opportunities for students in online classrooms to engage in high-leveldiscussions by framing and presenting ideas, formulating challenging ques-tions for peers, and responding to those questions to clarify misconceptionsthat arise. Thus, students learn to develop reasoned responses that includeexplanation and justification. Students also learn to devise and respond toquestions that require answers based on integration or synthesis of dispa-rate chunks of knowledge, logical connections, and causal or goal-orientedreasoning. Caution is warranted, however, because these forms of com-munication lack important features that are present in face-to-face inter-actions. (See Article Seven in this volume for more on personalizingelectronic communication.) Students may need explicit instruction to par-ticipate effectively in group-based, online communication forums. Devel-oping supportive online communities can be promoted by establishingguidelines for Internet etiquette, or “netiquette” (see McMurdo, 1995;Scheuermann & Taylor, 1997).