Growing numbers of faculty and students are online faculty and online students. They coffee klatch over the internet rather than at the student union. The teacher is in New York; one of the students is in Honolulu. This is causing a sea change in higher education.

As this electronic community grows, sustaining its participation in the traditional activities associated with academia raises significant challenges. Leaders in the scholarly world should ask if teachers and students from the online ranks will join in the learned societies, be on the boards of academic journals, be present in congresses and conferences. We could see a weakened academia, with increasing numbers of students and teachers absent from the activities that have been a mainstay. In cooperation and thanks to the vision of the American Public University System, American Military University and American Public University, the Policy Studies Organization is exploring ways to encourage the online university world's participation in the academy.

This site will incorporate some of the projects we have embarked upon, and it will be a resource for the professional development of on line educators in a number of ways. This is a two way street. We think that all of us, both in traditional bricks and mortar learning situations and in the new and expanding electronic learning situations have something to gain from a conversation in which APU and sister institutions are involved.