I have been teaching online for 10 years (for different universities), and I can tell you that there are no 2 classes alike. In the first chat, I usually mention the pitfalls of the class in general terms (i.e. no plagiarism, no late assignments, answer the topic, etc.). This last class, one student told me that this part is offensive to his intelligence. Oh, well, there is something new about each class. I believe that the motivation process is one of the important, and the hardest to do. I always ask myself: Is this student need the extra push (cheering and encouraging) or he/she is just lazy. In distant classes it is very hard to know the motivations of the student. On the other hand, there is a delicate balance of being a fair in grading a paper without being critical of the student. (you know from the answers that you are reading that the student didn’t read a word from the text. Saying so will definitely be very offensive. Another great topic is to use all media available to explain the material, some lectures are best understood from a video presentation, supplemented with white board, etc. 2- How can I apply it Tolerance and patience are of great value to use. Every time I want to set the “record straight”, I must remember that these students are working adults with lots of responsibilities, and have limited time to perfect their assignments 3- What support do I need? Students judge the professor on how the course material, and the assignments are presented. Much of this is done by a third party that we don’t communicate with. I wish that our administrative staff would allow this interaction.