This paper addresses the challenge of getting students to talk in class and to do outside reading. It is based upon direct experience in a specific setting; namely, a History of Western Civilization course. The course is a semester long, covering the ancient to early modern Europe, and is set at the introductory level.

The class is entirely virtual. We never meet face to face, not even initially, and there is nearly always one or more students who live out of town, out of state, or even out of the country. The class is therefore also entirely asynchronous, depending not on any live sessions but using the features of web-based bulletin board software. All materials, including copious source documents and extensive essays, are entirely online as well.

While fully virtual courses are rather rare, many teachers have adopted asynchronous, bulletin-board style discussion as a component of a live, face-to-face classroom. The issues challenges and solutions discussed here should be relevant to that environment, too.