At the University of Twente (Netherlands), a course management system called TeleTOP has been implemented in all faculties. This paper describes the TeleTOP system and the implementation process. In order to find out how teachers use their course environments in education, an analysis was made of 60 course environments. Results showed that these course environments were mainly used for the dissemination of information and less for interactive communication. Also, course environments help students prepare for learning and orientate on course content and practices, but are rarely used for giving feedback, monitoring, and assessment. In the last section of the paper, tips and recommendations are given for improving the use of course environments. (Contains 14 references.) (Author/MES)