In 2003 I began publishing student papers on the internet for several reasons:

• I've always found it a shame that good student research is usually only read by the professor, and often not even picked up by the author again;
• students will be more motivated to do good work and learn from the professor's comments if they are preparing their papers for publication;
• as a way of teaching about the advantages and limitations of the web as a source of information (what can one find in books but not on the web;
• to augment the information available on the web
  • by adding research from non-internet sources and internet databases not indexed by web search engines
  • by adding annotated links to the best resources already available on the web, thus raising them in search engine rankings.

As time goes by I am refining this concept by:
- publishing only the best student projects (not all of them),
- spending more time on the editing and formatting processes (earlier due dates, more drafts), and
- refining the assignment guidelines to yield the best results for the above goals.

For more information, see my thesis paper "The Internet as a Venue for Scholarly Interaction with the Public."