I think that an important part to online teaching is adding personally made videos, pictures and pod casts. This somehow adds warmth to the online environment.
When I take an online class, most of the time I feel like there's no one there. It's almost as if the pages was generated by a computer program (in which case, part of it is). Each course, if using the same Learning System such as Blackboard, looks exactly the same and feels exactly the same. I don't see any distinguishable personality between the webcourses. Remember that we don't type like we speak. Everything is too formal and...correct.
Adding video lectures, pod cast lectures, or even images (personally demonstrating a topic) tells me that there's someone behind all of this. The personality of the instructor will definitely be more apparent throughout these mediums of presentations; I will hear it in the voice, the facial expressions, and even the intonations in the instructor's voice. I like it when an instructor posts a picture of themselves; I can actually "put a face to a name."
Some may argue that the people taking these courses want nothing more than to just get the credit they need in the fastest way possible. If this is so, then I feel sorry for those people. But I believe that the majority of online students still want to feel as if they're taking a real class, with real people in it...even if it is short-lived. If we can't sit next to or work with another warm body, and if we can't see a warm body in front of the class, the least an instructor can do is make the computer feel a little inviting and warmer.
