Teaching children's literature online: Modern technology and virtual classroom communities

Online teaching, a new phenomenon in literary studies has elicited strong emotions among scholars of children's literature, some of whom are noted for their progressive beliefs. Like most of my colleagues in the academy, I was skeptical about teaching a graduate children's literature course online initially because I thought it would not only compromise the overall quality of the experience, but would also interfere with critical discussions that are usually associated with literature. However, now I realize that e-learning has its strengths and challenges just like residential teaching/learning. But for the virtual classroom community to function at its optimum the rules have to be clear.