You can’t see your online classmates, but they’re out there. They’re comfortably dressed, hair tousled, snacks at hand, with their feet on the desk, just like you. However, because you can’t see them doesn’t mean you guys aren’t a real class. In fact your online classmates can be highly valuable to your overall online education experience.

Here’s how:

1. Mental Support

Succeeding in an online course takes some serious dedication and time management skills, especially for students who have jobs and/or families. To sit down at the end of the day or early in the morning to study and learn new and challenging course material on your own can be mentally challenging.

In a classroom setting, you naturally chat with your classmates before and after class, discussing lectures and assignments, asking questions, sharing gripes, and encouraging each other. You don’t think about it, it just happens. With online classmates, it is just as important, if not more so, to reach out and communicate about everything from the class itself to specific struggles you might be having with course material or online learning in general.

Online student Jeff Davis, over at the AchieveYourCareer blog, writes an awesome post about his appreciation for his online classmates.

2. Technical Support

Your school probably has 24-hour technical service available to you, but sometimes it’s easier to ask friends or online classmates, who might have a good tip based on their own experience to help you solve your problem quickly. After all, they are taking the same exact course as you and therefore that much more in tune with what you are experiencing.

3. Two (or More) Brains are Better than One

Not all of your online classmates are necessarily living nearby, but with web conferencing and desktop sharing, you can connect via the Internet and form study groups, or collaborate on team project assignments. Through brainstorming, you’ll benefit from the strengths and knowledge of your online classmates while contributing your own.

4. Network, Network, Network

Most career advisers emphasize the importance of networking. Fortunately, more and more networking is done through social media these days. Developing positive relationships with your online classmates is a creative, resourceful way to network while pursuing your college degree.

Who knows, maybe one day your online classmate will start a business or land an incredible job at a company or in an industry where you’d like to work. Your connection with that person could mean a foot in the door of the career of your dreams. Or, in times like these, it could also mean the difference between unemployment and having a job.

Rally Your Online Classmates and Enrich Your Online Education Experience

Yes, taking an online class is somewhat of a solitary experience between you and your computer. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Reach out to your online classmates, get to know them, and share the experience with them. You’ll give and get support and develop relationships that could enrich both your e-learning experience and your career in the years to come.