Using a unique online approach to data gathering, students were asked to isolate the characteristics they believe are essential to effective teaching at the university level. An open-ended online survey was made available to over 17,000 graduate and undergraduate students at Memorial University of Newfoundland during the winter semester of 2008. Derived from this rich data are student definitions of nine characteristics and sets of instructor behaviours that students perceive as essential to effective teaching. The survey takes into account the opinions of students studying both on-campus and at a distance via the web, with the intention of determining if the characteristics of effective teaching in an online environment are different from those in the traditional face-to-face setting.