Students and teachers often do not know much about their peers in online courses other than what the peers offer to the class. Therefore, students and teachers can more easily have cultural misunderstandings and make inaccurate assumptions about each other (see Reference 1).
Online education relies heavily on text. This can be a problem for students that struggle to read the text, such as students with reading comprehension problems. Also, some students are more auditory or kinesthetic learners. However, teachers can sometimes overcome these obstacles through use of webcams and microphones (see Reference 1).
Students are less likely to censor what they say online because they do not receive the same immediate consequences that they would experience if they said certain things in person. Also, because a lot of communication is nonverbal, students might misinterpret written comments, leading to confusion or conflict. For example, students have a hard time identifying sarcasm in writing (see Reference 1).
With asynchronous conversation, there is no back-and-forth flow. Long delays can exist between the parts of back-and-forth conversation. For example, a student can send a message to the teacher and the teacher can take several hours to respond. Then, the student might forget the issue that he needed help with (see Reference 1).
Teachers must communicate a lot more with students. In a classroom, only one student can talk at a time, and students do not so often communicate with their teachers. In the online classroom, students are often communicating directly with the teacher, which creates more work for the teacher. Teachers are usually forced to put in longer hours and are expected to respond to student inquiries quickly (see Reference 2).
Technical issues can interfere with communication. A lost Internet connection can disrupt a class. Students and teachers might not have the right software and hardware to receive information. For example, the teacher might send a document in a file type that the student cannot open because of not having compatible software (see Reference 2).
Teachers must determine which form of communication will be the most effective for distributing information. Teachers often have access to tools such as email, bulletin boards, real-time chats and instant messaging. These tools all have strengths and weaknesses (see Reference 2).
Students have a greater potential to move away from the original focus of a particular conversation online. Teachers must work harder to moderate conversations and keep them on topic by asking questions that move students back to the original focus of the study (see Reference 3).