As a teacher of communications, my students have a particular need to feel comfortable with me, to feel that once again they can trust me, but perhaps in a different way than the concept of intellectual trust, in this case, I think it translates into nurturing. Pathos may be created by both visual and verbal strategies. Visual cues include the use of color, font, placement of texts and symbols, and in the use of gifs. Color and font suggests mood and tone. The use of cool colors blue and green suggest the obvious peaceful tone while the use of warm colors adds excitement, but needs to be used sparingly as it is more difficult to read.
Sincerity is created by word choice and tone.
Humor adds to humanizing a web course. There are a variety of strategies to create humor. The simplest strategy may simply be the use of clever animated gifs that work with course concepts. I've used simple puns and added in some humor when writing text and certainly when answered e-mail. Clearly communication must be at the heart of all teaching, and ethos and pathos are part of the heart of communication.