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what's happening in our program is interesting. Yes there has been growth but in really only two areas--the rhetoric and professional writing program and in our "service" courses. This is the on-campus story. Waterloo has also had a long history of Distance Education involvement--especially in English. Across Canada right now DE is declining, and this is now affecting our programs as well. I think the stats we have been talking about mention the decline in part-time students. Well a lot of those students might have been DE students. My impression is that after years of profiting from but ignoring DE, universities, including WAterloo, are now scrambling, trying to invent new courses and programs to bring back the DE students. I think, however, we are going to need a lot of investment to compete with on-line resources that already exist. I have already ventured in this direction myself by creating an on-line writing course. I am piloting it right now--my biggest challenge has not been the interactive part. Several software systems exist that facilitate on-line discussion. The tough part has been the annotation software--software designed to facilitate peer editing and comments on drafts. I looked into Common Space, but it wouldn't work in a purely on-line, web site environment. The THING I am struggling with is an new IBM product, and it is truely driving me crazy. If anybody knows of a better software for on-line editing please let me know. Catherine F. Schryer Dept. of English University of Waterloo Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3G1 (519) 885-1211 (ext 3318)