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[johnr]

(holy crap, why didn't someone warn me about the start-up costs!?). 

What kind of startup costs?

Time, so much time.  I'm a lab and lecture type of guy.  In a normal class, my PowerPoint slides consist of pictures, graphs and tables, very little text; and then I talk and ask the students questions, and talk some more.  I like to talk with chalk in my hand too and I use the black board a lot. None of that translates very well to an online version of the class.   I've been adding recorded narrative to PowerPoint slides, making podcasts, adding (and finding) video clips, developing online quizzes and tests,  adding a lot of text to slides, learning a entirely new way to teach, and on and on.  

The "online classes" section of this forum has been very helpful.  I've been lurking there all winter.

[keineidee]

I think there is a big difference between posing as a student in an intentionally deceptive way and participating in an online conversation in a pseudonymous way. I am uncomfortable with the former w/in a classroom context. I have, however, done chatroom and Second Life experiments in which we all had online handles and discussed class texts and issues, and nobody knew who anybody was. Part of the point in those situations was to think about what it was like to discuss the materials w/o many of the social cues we have in a classroom setting.

[helpful]

(holy crap, why didn't someone warn me about the start-up costs!?).  

What kind of startup costs?

Time, so much time.  I'm a lab and lecture type of guy.  In a normal class, my PowerPoint slides consist of pictures, graphs and tables, very little text; and then I talk and ask the students questions, and talk some more.  I like to talk with chalk in my hand too and I use the black board a lot. None of that translates very well to an online version of the class.   I've been adding recorded narrative to PowerPoint slides, making podcasts, adding (and finding) video clips, developing online quizzes and tests,  adding a lot of text to slides, learning a entirely new way to teach, and on and on.  

The "online classes" section of this forum has been very helpful.  I've been lurking there all winter.

Fair enough. When I read 'costs' I assume it cost money; it sounds like it cost you a lot of time, though.