It was helpful to find links to some of the resource compilations such as MERLOT. My experience trying to find good virtual lab tools has been very hit or miss. There seems to be a lot out there but it is often pretty low quality and it would be useful to find resources that have already been curated to some degree.

One of the things I sometimes struggle with is falling behind on grading when the semester gets really busy. I can see that in an online course it is essential for the students to get regular and prompt feedback on assignments since that is their primary method of contact< so I will be sure to be especially careful of that when teaching an online course!

I like the idea of encouraging student engagement by adding badges or some other "currency" as a reward system. Students respond well to gamification, and something like a duolingo-style proficiency progression could work well.

It was interesting to hear that discussion forums are generally regarded as a good resource for in-depth discussions. In my experience they typically invite shallow and superficial comments as students try to check the box of completing the assignment while still meeting a minimum wordcount. In the future I will work to restructure discussion prompts to be centered more around analysis of ideas rather than course information.