This commentary on the recent article, "Developing an Online Geology Course for Preservice and Inservice Teachers: Enhancements for Online Learning" by Veal, Brantley, and Zulli (2004) examines two issues related to the design of online courses. First, the concept of affordances is used to compare face-to-face and online classes for insights into which instructional strategies are likely to be useful in both settings and which are not. Second, design-based research, the methodology employed by Veal et al. in their study, is considered for its potential to guide the investigation of innovations in online classes.