Usually this is limited to those students who speak up in class or who choose to come to faculty office hours. Students were met in small groups. In addition, the instructor can be online as the students enter the virtual space. By the end of the semester the experience is such that the instructor has a conversational relationship with more than half the class. One negative side of the Web course is the lack of human contact that is experienced by both student and faculty.
Electronic contact is obviously necessary when students are engaging the material from remote sites.
However, when students are on the same campus as the instructor this situation can become frustrating. This has become an outlet for those students for whom the Web is too impersonal. In addition it gives the faculty member some live time with at least a few students. A final possible negative is the investment of faculty time for a course of this magnitude. The lecture version of the course required 3 in-class hours per week.