I really liked the way that the Duke TIP program structured their online summer Criminal Justice course: assigned books, articles, and Web links to be read independently; a discussion forum where the teacher and students could post questions and discussion topics, with a requirement for each student to post a minimum number of topics or questions and a requirement to answer a minimum number of other people's posts each week; and several mandatory live chat sessions for more lively discussion of the issues covered during the week. Weekly writing assignments were uploaded directly to the teacher's dropbox and were returned with commentary. It was online, yes, but required a lot more class participation and gave a lot more feedback than many in-person courses I have seen. "Online" doesn't have to mean "without interaction".
I love that MIT and many other colleges are putting video of their best teachers online, and I would encourage students and schools who are using these materials to set up discussion sections with others who are also using them, either IRL or through e-mail lists or forums or chatrooms, to get the most out of the material.
