Online discourse environments are increasingly popular, both in distance education contexts (Hiltz & Wellman, 1997; Rovai, 2001) and as adjuncts to face-to-face learning (Duffy, Dueber & Hawley, 1998). Research suggests that, in certain contexts, such electronic supports can increase the depth of student learning (Scardamalia & Bereiter, 1994). For many participants, such contexts are experienced as positive, community supported learning opportunities, but this is not the case for everyone. Among preservice students, results from a recent study (Brett, 2002) suggested that many psychological and cultural factors influenced whether math-anxious preservice students actively engaged in the math-related online component of their preservice program. Findings suggested that the online context provided the most learning support for participants who had already had successful social and subject-related experiences in the program. Those with fewer successful face-to face experiences and who espoused an ability-based notion of subject-matter felt less able to contribute substantively and participated less online. Additionally, the patterns of online engagement for participants, who contributed both the most and the least (10 of the 20) to discussions, were established early on and they changed little over the two year period of study. Online engagement is conceptualized as requiring both epistemic agency (Scardamalia, 2000) and identity within the community (Wenger, 1998).