Interacting with other students as a distance learner, can be beneficial alternative to the traditional classroom. At the same time, it has some of the same negative points as the internet does in general.
There definitely are some benefits of distance learning. The amount of people you're able to meet and talk to in a short time is nice, because everyone is right there. You can keep talking forever, because its all online and very convenient to multi task. You can also do homework or play games together very easily.
However, the downside to interacting with fellow students online is the danger of not actually being able to get to know them. From my experiences, some of my fellow classmates would pretend to be people other than who they really were, and some would not even send their picture out, for fear no one would like them. It is very easy to be someone other than yourself on the internet, while there is no danger of your fellow students learning the truth about you.
