The structure of Trails is simple. At the top level is a page of links that go to the individual Trail pages. On each individual Trail page is the title, one or more pictures, and some text that gives keywords, questions and comments designed to help get the students on their way.

The course has a link list for each of the three main sections: ancient, medieval, and early modern. The list is broken up because it would otherwise be too long and too overwhelming. I keep the list simple and fast because at this point the students are still browsing and will want to go in and out of topics with a minimum of fuss.

On the individual Trail pages, though, I am concerned to catch the eye, so I include pictures that seem intriguing, and I write commentary that I hope is likewise intriguing. The choice of topic, and the text on the specific Trail page, are both very important to the success of the exercise.

I am not in the habit of giving catchy names to exercises, but I did here, for two reasons. First, by giving it a name I was trying to set a tone that this was an exercise out of the ordinary. It was not a "report" or a "paper" or an "essay". It certainly wasn't "supplemental reading"! "Trails" not only evoked what the exercise was about, it also established an informality that I wanted. Second, the name gave the students a convenient tag for the bulletin board. Rather than create a separate discussion area just for the Trails, I wanted to integrate what students were finding directly into the on-going conversation. Yet we also needed a way to identify "here is something I found while exploring on the Internet." I also wanted a convenient way to check and see if lots of students were doing this exercise or only a few. So I told the students to embed "Trails" as part of the subject line. Since the name was short and memorable, this worked well. Not all students did this, of course, but most did.