Online educators are always on the search for another teaching strategy to improve that number one goal of all online educators: to engage the students. Once this is accomplished assignments of better quality appear, assignments are submitted--and on time, students are more inclined to pursue and peruse all components of the course, and they will end with an overall very positive and long-term learning experience. One of these teaching tools that can be overlooked or not structured/implemented correctly is the open-ended question. Used judiciously and properly it can tremendously enhance the online course for student and instructor. This article highlights the important guidelines online educators should follow.