Nobody disappears in an online classroom. If a learner doesn’t reply, or doesn’t post, it is easier to notice than the face to face student who sits in back of the classroom. Keeping them engaged in a meaningful, rather than dutiful, way is the bigger challenge. This article from Faculty Focus details the process of an instructor looking for high quality engagement. “The re-design process involved adapting the interactivity inherent in the face-to-face course to the online course. First, this particular faculty member infused a lot of his personality into his teaching. In order to replicate this in the online course, we had a multi-media specialist record his lectures in an empty classroom with the faculty member presenting his material just as he does in his traditional course, for example, using a white board to illustrate examples and problem exercises.”
via Moving a Face-to-Face Course Online without Losing Student Engagement | Faculty Focus.
New Images of Education 