by Bhumika Ghimire

Created on: March 29, 2007   Last Updated: April 02, 2011

Distance learning is getting more and more common these days thanks to the advanced internet and video technology. Across universities in America and abroad students are exploring the benefits of distance learning; some have become true believers in the effectiveness and capacity of distance learning.

While distance learning is an attractive opportunity for many students, there are certain areas where students have to put an extra effort so that the learning experience best mirrors the real world experience.One of those areas is interacting with other students.

Being a distance learner, you don't have the opportunity to see your classmates, talk to them and share ideas or just look at how they are doing and forge a friendship. According to some educators, the class room interaction is vital to effective learning.So not being part of real world class can pose challenges to your ability to get the best out of a distance learning course. Best way to solve this gap is through effective communications strategy. Here are some tips to do just that.

# On the first day of class, ask the instructor to make available the contact details of fellow students, like email, phone number etc. That way you can stay in touch with members in class, get help or just learn about their experience.

# If the course is part of your university's course, suggest the distance learning administrator to have a "meeting" day where students who can visit the campus can meet and talk about the class and just have a relationship as classmates.

# While you are having the class online, try your best to participate.Ask questions and discuss ideas so that there is a comfortable learning environment and people feel free to express themselves. This helps in communications later on when you send them emails or call them.

I took three online classes for my graduate school. It was a great experience, I made couple of friends and we helped each other for assignments. So, I suggest that nay distance learner should make an effort in establishing a good relationship with fellow students.This make distance learning more fun, interactive and also make its more effective.

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