Profs: COP strategies

What strategies in Creating Communities of Practice did you find that you could use in your classes now (even if classes have already started)? When I first started using these strategies, I added a share/practice/review forum in all the weekly discussions so that students could do peer reviews on their upcoming assignments. They loved it. Since then, I've put that in all my online classes that are pre-designed. In classes that I design, the SPR is incorporated into the unit discussions and it's not a separate forum, just part of the discussion structure. Students are "teaching each other" and polishing critical thinking skills without "formal" instruction in these skills. It's working out quite nicely and at the end of every class, I get comments about how much they enjoy the interactive and engaging discussions. What can you do in your class to enhance these qualities in communication?