The first time you teach a course in the online environment it is pretty exciting.  You feel like you are on the cutting edge of technology.  You imagine your students reading every post that you write and using your feedback to reach great heights. 

However, once you have taught the same course a few times, you must admit that your excitement starts to wane.  You realize that a lot of the great critical thinking questions that you post are unanswered by students and that sometimes a student's rough draft and final draft look very similar even when you spent a long time giving detailed suggestions for improvement.  You start to hope for something new and become somewhat dismayed when you see that all too familiar course title be placed on the list of your future courses.

So what do you do?  How can you get out of the emotional rut that you are finding yourself in?  Here are a few suggestions for strategies that I have found to be helpful in making any course more exciting and fun. 

First, I suggest posting some directions in the first discussion forum to invite students to read your responses to other students.  I have learned that some students think it is rude to jump into conversations and do not look at your responses their classmates' responses.  Once you have established that it is perfectly fine to read and answer these questions, I encourage you to think of unique and fun titles for your responses.  When students see a "headline" that grabs their interest, they are more likely to read it and possibly respond to your question.

Next, feel free to add information from your life and personal studies to add a unique flavor to each course.  I have an optional post each week called, "Ben's Book of the Week."  This is just a short post about a book that I have read for my doctoral program and post a few questions that connect to our own classroom.  The response from students has been very positive and they seem to like that I am willing to open up and talk about what I am learning about.  It connects me to them as a learner as well. 

 Finally, remember that even though you have taught the course numerous times, it is the student's first time in the course.  They are excited, possibly nervous, and eager to learn and feel like they are on track to meeting their educational goals.  The last thing that they want is to feel that they are wasting their time and money taking a course that seems dull or uninteresting.  Putting yourself in their shoes helps to give you the perspective needed when you begin to struggle with a certain course.  I often have to think, "What would I want my online teachers to do to make my course interesting?"  This question allows me to think of new concepts to add and information to share.  

I hope that you found this advice helpful and that no matter what course you are teaching, you can add your own unique perspective and insights into the material.