One challenge with online classes is that instructors never know if participants are actually “present.”  It’s easy for participants to “multitask” by checking e-mail or surfing the web during the session.  A simple way to find out if participants are giving the session their full attention is to ask them!  At a recent webinar that I attended, the instructors asked participants at the end of the class to rate “how present you were able to be during this session.”  The results can then be correlated with other evaluation measures.