Last year I was laid low with a virus for several days and it looked likely that I would have to cancel several seminars. At the last moment I remembered that there was a Chat facility on the Keele Learning Environment (KLE) and emailed the students from each seminar, asking them to enter the Common Room at the usual seminar time for a “virtual seminar” I could conduct without spreading my germs and without leaving the comfort of my bed. Over a period of two days, I led largely successful seminars on “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” by Edgar Allan Poe and on New York’s exceptionalism.