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This paper reports findings from a study of 10 small groups of graduate students as they completed tasks in a distance education course. Computer-mediated discourse analysis was used to examine their language for the functional moves exchanged during the online discussions among group members. Current theories of the social construction of knowledge stress that initial divergent viewpoints are used as the basis for coming to new understandings through dialogue. Theoretical models of this meaning making process often foreground a process of disagreement, challenge and argument development as indicators of effective dialogue for learning. Findings from this study, however, reveal the use of a discourse of connection and possibility rather than one of challenge and argumentation. Participants acknowledged the validity of the individual view, identified the possibility of an alternative view, and sought to make connections between, rather than argue against, disparate viewpoints.