The expansion of the web has opened up new possibilities for communications between faculty and students, between students, and also between scholars spread across the world.  A developing community of co-learners collaborating through improved communications allows for greater access to information, and interaction between diverse and far-flung participants.  Not only is it possible to exchange text messages through email, chat and discussion boards, but it is also possible to exchange rich formatted documents for review and critique, audio and visual media, and other forms of data such as archived datasets, etc.