Richard, Changing from teaching F2F to a virtual environment can be difficult. The first thing I do is a quick analysis of what I'm doing in class and how I'm providing the information to students. Does the project/assignment/etc. involve student-to-student (S2S) interaction, or instructor-to-student (I2S) interaction or student-to-instructor (S2I) interaction? This is a good question to ask because you then have to think about the technology tool to allow for such interaction or change the project/assignment/etc. Thinking about these things and the communication within the course are huge considerations. Thanks for your input and ideas on how you use Skype and other technologies.