Hello Jeremy, I know what you mean. Over the past two decades I have been a postsecondary student and instructor in both online and traditional settings. Many of my experiences correspond exactly to what you are describing. However, I did have the good fortune to take several online graduate courses that were very robust and taught well (not just 'facilitated') because multiple a/v technologies were used to enhance the human connection. Many of these technologies are just starting to be more integrated into the newer versions of many LMS platforms. I hope you have the opportunity in the near future to make use of some of these enhancements. They seem (to me) to kick it up a notch for online instruction.