Give them content choices. Use telecommunications to get them to teach each other. A good online instructor is a facilitator, not the only source of information . Online learning should be broken into manageable pieces . Because online learners quit quickly and because our attention span for a computer screen is limited, online content should be broken into chunks that take twenty minutes or less to complete.
Students can always do more than one piece if their attention span holds.
All learners are media critics. We have all been trained by television, movies, and Internet to be harsh media critics. If presentation, content, or design is mediocre, we seek out other sources. Information is plentiful and we have to be good critics or we just don t have enough time to get what we need. Quality design becomes critical in this atmosphere.