Columbia University professor Samuel Moyn is amused. For the last few weeks two of his students have engaged in a running philosophical debate on the role of natural law in trying war criminals through a series of online posts on his International Criminal Law course on Lore. Moyn and the rest of his class follow along, with some checking their emails throughout the day specifically to see if they’ve received any Lore notifications about new posts.

“Everyone knows they’re doing it,” he says, “and so it’s kind of an amusing and interesting feature of my course on [Lore] that we wouldn’t have had if we had just been going to class for the two hours in person – because there’s not time in the classroom to let them pursue their private spat. But with [Lore] they do it in public and it’s very interesting.”

Communication and interaction are two continuing themes in Moyn’s history and philosophy courses. Moyn asserts that online discussion adds a dimension to the class that wouldn’t have occurred elsewhere, and often uses the online conversation on Lore as a guide for in- class discussion.

“It’s fun to interact with students at a place like Columbia. They’re really talented,” he says. “The interactivity creates a particular dynamic that you wouldn’t necessarily get in class. People’s personalities come out differently online than in class, and often students go beyond what’s asked of them.”