Participants and Facilitators alike learn to access and utilize the Internet and new technology in on-line environments. The nature of the on-line courses need to be considered and designs developed that rely on the strengths of this environment. Asynchronous learning offers much in terms of convenience, thoughtfulness, long-distance collaboration, and quality. It is important to make prior messages accessible to the on-line course participants. This collection is a shared knowledge base and is often used as a reference, in their on-line community building, and in their content.
Procrastination is a major problem for participants.
They often try to fit their on-line course into time slots around their busy schedule. Facilitation and management of the on-line course is often very demanding and time consuming for the instructor.