Technical and professional communication e-learning environments: establishing community and "sense of community"

What constitutes and what contributes to creating effective academic e-learning communities? We discuss features of online communities as well as important concerns and ways of using emerging technologies to establish a "sense of community". In studying e-learning environments, we view them as discourse communities containing several types of community that contribute to students\´ sense of belonging and participation (community of person, community of support, and community of learning), all based on students\´ developing a sense of trust and respect. Finally, the focus of our conference presentation will be initiatives for creating effective virtual learning communities, a complex process that is not always positive: building a foundation, ensuring continual community through interaction, and structuring e-discussions as part of building a community of learning.