This is the best way to increase student engagement. When students know the instructor uses their feedback to make adjustments to the course, it is powerful.
Tailors instruction to meet the different needs of
students, including different learning styles, different
interests and backgrounds, and students with special needs
or whom are language learners (SREB C.7, Varvel V.H, ITS
4.c)
Because it takes more effort to get to know students online (not face to face) this may take a lot of effort at first. An experienced online instructor may be able to make some generalizations but a new instructor would need to consider how to determine the needs of the group in a particular cohort when designing a course.
Creates a learning community that encourages
collaboration and interaction, including student-teacher,
student-student, and student-content (SREB D.2, Varvel
VII.B, ITS 6.a)
It would be easy to create a course in which a student interacts only with articles and websites. It takes more thought and creativity to make sure interaction is built in to the class.
It would be very difficult to teach an online course if an instructor has never taken one. This would be helpful in knowing how to be proactive with students instead of being reactive to their issues.