By providing links to thought-provoking issues beyond the realm of close reading, the Explorations serve as stepping stones for critical papers. Instructors are urged to submit especially good responses, discussions, and papers which their students generate on any of the works. Some will be chosen to be posted on the site for a short period of time. Students can then analyze these discussions in their own classes, looking for productive issues, questions, and interpretations to compare with their own. Instructors can set up Web-based discussion forums by subscribing to OnCourse and using the Norton server.
Students can write directly in the discussion box or copy and paste longer papers.