Communities of practice are groups of professionals who come together to share and create knowledge and, in so doing, foster professional and social bonds and support. Communities of practice can also be used in physician training to help provide support and foster professional development. Virtual communities of practice can be especially useful for distance clinical learners who may be away from their home institution and peers for extended periods of time. Through the use of the Internet and video chatting software (eg, Skype), virtual communities of practice can help reduce feelings of isolation among geographically dispersed learners while also creating an environment of critical inquiry and professional development. They can also allow meaningful faculty-student interaction, something that is often lost when learners leave the home campus for extended periods of time. This presentation will describe an innovative program created by one undergraduate medical institution that helps foster virtual communities of practice for a student body that does all of its third- and fourth-year clinical rotations off-campus. Students at this institution spend their first 2 years of medical school on campus and report high levels of camaraderie and sense of community with peers and faculty during this time. Upon entering their clinical rotations, these same students are dispersed for the next 2 years on clinical rotations that take place in varying locations across the US, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Students often feel isolated as a result of this often jarring transition. To help reconcile these feelings of isolation, the institution implemented virtual student cohorts that persist with a student throughout their third- and fourth-year clinical rotations. The presenters will describe how they utilize inexpensive, cloud-based videoconferencing technology that is easily accessible on laptops, tablets, and smartphones to enable these groups to meet. Additionally, the presenters will describe the learning theory, approach, and methodology they have used to create a program that is now in its third year of existence and has served more than 700 students in over 80 virtual small groups. Programmatic evaluation data will be shared, with evidence on how the program has met, and continues to meet, its goals of creating community for spatially dispersed students during their clinical rotations.