Having rapport with students in the discussion board on a daily basis will keep instructors aware of how students are doing each day with the assignments. One issue that I do face as an online instructor is getting students to ask questions on assignments. In most cases, they come in late or not at all with incomplete work with specific assignments. I make sure to give positive feedback to students and show them how to complete those problem sets. I also let them know in my feedback that I encourage them to post questions in the discussion board or to me by email so that they can earn the most points on these assignments.