These are heady days for online learning in the academy. What was once the domain of innovative institutions, administrators, and faculty is quickly becoming mainstream. Higher education has seen rapid growth in online enrollments relative to the rest of the college population. More than one in five college students has taken a class online. A majority of higher education administrators view online learning as critical to their organization's long-term strategy. Even faculty are coming around, with majorities viewing online learning as a useful means of increasing access to higher education for hard-to-reach populations. In this article, the author discusses distinct advantages that web-based technologies provide and how online instructors can best utilize them for the benefit of their students. The author presents an example that shows the potential of the online learning environment to foster greater levels of commitment among students, with the course material, and with the online instructor. As more and more faculty are beginning to teach online each year, the author stresses that online instructors need to keep thinking about the best ways to utilize technology to create powerful learning environments.