I select those readings that relate to course themes during the semester and link them to the calendar section of the American Religious History online syllabus. This linkage gives my students immediate and simultaneous access to various documents from any library or dormitory room. The system works something like an online selected readings reference shelf, but it eliminates the common problem of waiting in lines when too many students try to access one or two books or photocopy folders at library reading rooms. The number of worthwhile primary readings currently on the web is limited, but the list is rapidly growing, and every semester the options expand dramatically. Currently my American Religious History syllabus displays 15 reading links.
Classical education is alive and well.
The internet furnishes an unprecedented means for collaboration, not only among religion scholars but between instructors and the students they serve. Students at these schools develop term papers that are converted into HTML and published at the Experience site. Those students who are interested in publishing their material in article form may submit their manuscripts to an informal jury process that the Experience directors arrange. Once the student makes the appropriate revisions, the paper becomes a permanent part of the Experience project under a topical area located at the main page. Most student papers never make it this far, but it is noteworthy that, with proper supervision and an ongoing liberal revision policy, those manuscripts and images that do survive will provide a useful contribution to the growing body of information on the internet.