Web-based learning environments are a great asset only if they are designed well and used as intended. The urgency to create courses in response to the growing demand for online learning has resulted in a hurried push to drop PowerPoint notes into Web-based course management systems (WBCMSs), devise an electronic quiz, put together a few discussion questions, and call it a course. Web-based learning environments can serve as motivational, instructional, modeling, feedback, and assessment tools. These environments also can impact the cognitive and social behaviors of students. Through a synthesis of research (Exhibit 1) and practical classroom experiences, the author has identified some possible cognitive and social/psychological effects of Web-based learning environments. In this article, the author describes the effects in terms of learners, tasks, and tools. Her aim is to showcase both the ideal and not-so-ideal outcomes of various online teaching strategies by highlighting relevant research, providing examples of good applications, and suggesting ways in which WBCMSs can be enhanced to accommodate successful educational models. The audience for this article includes instructors and designers of Web-based courses who must change the direction of course development instead of maintaining the status quo. (Contains 2 tables and 6 exhibits.)