Robert,
It's WAY cool that you are realizing what you do in the traditional course can be transferred to the online environment. Learning to teach is a process. Bringing your expertise into the classroom is to be commended.
You are correct in that students want to be heard. They also want to know what is expected of them (course objectives) and want to be able to find what they need to do easily in the online environment (course design).
Nice job.
