Ok, so, Did You Freak Out?!
I posted a "grabber" as my first blog -- why?
In distance learning classes where you don't see your students and they don't see each other, the level of passion and importance had to be significantly higher than in a face-to-face class.
In my 37 years of teaching, and five years of teaching 100% asynchronous distance learning classes, I am convinced that in DL we need to have higher "thresholds of intensity". Every course regardless of the discipline has very high thresholds of emotional and normative tension. In traditional classes we may actually want to diminish this passion. In DL clases we need all the passion we can find!
In distance learning classes the passion is a fuel for creating incentives for students to engage, participate seriously.
I use the moments of tension and apprehension about the subject of my classes - Identity Theft Prevention, The Politics and Policy of Coastal Areas, Electronic Democracy, the Iowa Caucuses and The Selection of American Presidents - as a useful "teaching moment".