One of the more important features of this course website is its discussion forum. There you will find a number of "discussion threads" in which different people write about upon issues that arise during the course. A thread may begin with a question about what something in a course document means or about how to do something in the course. Or it may begin as a comment by someone about an interesting related fact or software package. Other people may then reply, continuing on until the natural course of the discussion eventually winds to a halt.

Now, it's hardly unusual for a website to feature a forum (also known as bulletin boards or discussion groups). What is unusual about this one is that the Forum is integrated with the course documents. Nearly every web page in the course has a "Discuss This Page" section at the bottom, which lists any discussion threads already created about that page. It also offers a button allowing you to open up new discussions about the thread.