1. Give the students a weekly quiz--Reading quizzes force students to read the class lecture or the weekly reading assignment to get a good grade. Reading quizzes don't have to be hard or long. You can give a timed quiz where they answer a few reading comprehension questions to show they have read the material.
When I was teaching face to face, reading quizzes were very effective in making sure students read the material. As we were studying a novel, then it became even more important that students read the chapters so that students would be able to discuss the book in class.
2. Base your forum questions on the reading. You can ask students questions about the reading like, "What did you like about the reading?" "How would you apply topic A to the reading we had this week?" How is this week's reading different from last week's reading on this same topic?"
Online students have told me in the end of class survey that they appreciated the reading questions I posted in the forums because the reading questions allowed students to talk about the reading, and the questions helped students guide their reading for the week.
3. Have students discuss how the reading relates to their life. Motivate students to read by framing the reading assignment with ways students can apply the reading to their lives and then have students answer the question, "How can this week's reading apply to your life?"
By making the reading relevant to the students' life, students are motivated on their own to do the reading. At my online school, this approach was used the most to get students to do the reading. Each student would then apply the reading to his or her own life.
I would apply the reading to my professional life so that students get an idea of how what they read in class can benefit them in their professional life in the future.
4. Have students do a project/paper/or a reflection assignment based on the reading. Students can then get hands-on experience based on the topics in the reading/class lecture.
By applying what they read to projects, hands on learners are able to apply what they read for that week to projects they are doing. When students apply knowledge from class to a hands-on project, students can easily see how useful class lecture topics are to their lives in the future.
5. Design your class so that each week the knowledge gained from the reading is cumulative so that in order to do assignments, students have to get information from the reading week by week.
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