Abstract
In traditional face-to-face classes, instructors make numerous adjustments to their teaching in response to the nonverbal feedback they receive from students. Students’ facial expressions, posture, head movements, gestures, and other body language indicate their levels of frustration, engagement, etc., and over time instructors become adept at interpreting and responding to this nonverbal communication. The same is not true in online classes, and the absence of body language and other nonverbal communication is one of most disorienting things about teaching online. Nevertheless, despite the absence of body language, online classes have a quite distinct emotional tenor, and often a surprisingly negative