4. Rich content. Students lose my lectures but gain web exhibits, primary source databases, popular and academic history articles, podcasts, vidcasts, and blogs relevant to the course. They hardly miss me at all...
Inspired by larryc's comment, I'd like to start a whole new thread on this topic. Where have you found great content for your online course?
Here are some of my favorites:
For pretty much any topic, search
www.npr.org with some key words. I've found so much relevant, compelling content. Anything from a recording of Carl Sandburg reading poetry, to a story about Muslim fanaticism in London, to a
Talk of Nation conversation with Tim O'Brien about how war changes the warrior.
For poetry readings and author biographies, search Garrison Keillor's Writer's Almanac
http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/ For narratives, I've linked to stories on
www.thislife.org,
www.thestory.org,
www.themoth.org, and
www.storycorps.org. Most recently, for a unit in African American literature and the vernacular tradition, I've found contemporary stories in the griot tradition
http://www.storycorps.org/listen/stories/category/griot and recordings of oral histories of slaves at the library of congress
http://www.loc.gov/podcasts/slavenarratives/index.htmlFor interviews with authors, Charlie Rose has an awesome video library. I recent linked to an interview with Jhumpa Lahiri (there were SIX (!) to choose from )
http://www.charlierose.com/guest/grid/all For short films, I use stuff from Independent Lens
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/insideindies/shortsfest/ ; IFC
http://www.ifc.com/videos/shorts/drama/ ; and LOGO
http://www.logoonline.com/video/franchise.jhtml?ctid=1930