WELCOME from the JOLT Editors

On behalf of the entire Editorial Board of the MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, we would like to welcome you to this first issue of JOLT. The idea for this new journal came about during a coffee break at a MERLOT Editors meeting over two and a half years ago. Since that coffee break in 2003 dozens of e-mails, telephone calls, meetings, and proposals have enabled that initial idea to become a working online journal.

In this inaugural issue you will find articles concerned with authentic assessment, visualizing quantum mechanical revivals via physlets, and learning objects in use. You will also find an interview of one of the directors of the Virginia Center for Digital History and a case study featuring the KEEP Toolkit of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Learning and Teaching.

The journal could not have come about without the able assistance of the Editorial Board and the continuing efforts of Flora McMartin, Martin Bastiaan, and Lynda Tran - all dedicated members of the MERLOT administrative team. To all of these individuals, we owe a debt of gratitude.

It is our hope that in the coming months and years JOLT will provide a means for scholars the world over to share their ideas on how to make the online medium a powerful element in higher education. We invite you to join us in this effort!

Tracy Penny Light and Edward H. Perry
JOLT Editors-in-Chief