  Online learning is convenient for many learners; it gives them the
possibility of learning without being restricted by attending a particular
classroom at a specific time. While this exciting opportunity can let its users
manage their life in a better way, many students may suffer from feeling
isolated or disconnected from the community that consists of the instructor and
the learners. Lack of interaction among students and the instructor may
negatively impact their learnings and cause adverse emotions like anxiety,
sadness, and depression. Apart from the feeling of loneliness, sometimes
students may come up with different issues or questions as they study the
course, which can stop them from confidently progressing or make them feel
discouraged if we leave them alone. To promote interaction and to overcome the
limitations of geographic distance in online education, we propose a customized
design, Tele-instruction, with useful features supplement to the traditional
online learning systems to enable peers and the instructor of the course to
interact at their conveniences once needed. The designed system can help
students address their questions through the answers already provided to other
students or ask for the instructor's point of view by two-way communication,
similar to face-to-face forms of educational experiences. We believe our
approach can assist in filling the gaps when online learning falls behind the
traditional classroom-based learning systems.
