Courses as conversations – this metaphor was first brought to my attention several years ago by a VCU professor, Deb Cowles. Inspired by The Cluetrain Manifesto (Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls, and David Weinberger, 1999) where markets are conversations. I did not pause to ask her more or stop to think much about it then. Recently, I tried to pick up a book I started a few years back and the author (Petersen, 2005) talked about how his book is a conversation because conversation implies a back-and-forthness, several voices engaged in considering,…