John, As with traditional classrooms we need to use formative and summative assessment methods. Those methods are usually more "formal" in online environments because we do not have the face to face real-time feedback. Short questionnaires, quizzes, reflections, etc. help. These don't have to be long complex quizzes, just short assessments to determine if the students got the concepts or not. I also use short reflections that the students write (based on a question I give them). A quick scan of their reflection will tell me if they are understanding and conceptualizing the materials or not. Herbert Brown III