Successful online courses are communities of learners. In order to learn successfully online, students enrolled in online classes must not only follow instructions and complete assignment, but also be able to work collaboratively and have a strong sense of a common goal for the class.

At James Madison University, we have developed an online version of the first-year composition course. We offer it to upper-division students who have not fulfilled the first-year writing requirement. However, the General Education Program is trying to convince us to offer composition online to incoming freshman.

However, we believe that incoming freshmen will benefit more from a face-to-face introduction to the university community than from taking their first ever university courses online. Through face-to-face contact and socialization with their classmates and professors, incoming freshmen will be able to orient themselves in the university community better. This, in turn, will prepare them for academic work, including any online courses they may choose to take later on.

This paper will discuss reasons why we believe incoming freshmen may need to enter the university learning community through face-to-face contact, instead of participation in online learning.