Facilitators must organized the course content to be user friendly to optimize student success.

Facilitators wear many hats in the world of online learning.

Instructors are more in demand when they have the knowledge and experience in BOTH  Synchronous and Asynchronous teaching styles  and organization skills. Overall, the students benefit from Instructors with these skill set.

Instructors MUST know how to utilize a plethora technologies and be able to demonstrate for the distance learning students so they can learn to navigate through the vast technology tools available to students to be successful. It is all in the spirit of learning.

Overcommunication is key to overcoming these obstacles presented in students personal lives that spill over into their academic life.

There is a clear distinction between asynchronous and synchronous methods to online teaching and learning. Students must know the difference so they can be successful distance learners.

I normally have an Introduction DB Thread at the beginning of each semester with Guided Biography Questions that students answer that share layers of each others personality types, life experiences and academic & career goals. Students that have similiar career interesst tend to connect quicker and become study buddies.

Most of everything here, I am familiar with because I am currently a Distance Learning Professor and I have been  of teaching Distance Learning courses for over a decade.