In the most general sense, it usually means encouraging students to use active techniques (experiments, real-world problem solving) to create more knowledge and then to reflect on and talk about what they are doing and how their understanding is changing. The teacher makes sure she understands the students' preexisting conceptions, and guides the activity to address them and then build on them.

However, few would deny that there is a strong probability that the distancing effect of computer-mediated asynchronous learning will cause many instructors and students to view one another more like extensions of the machines through which they are communicating than as real persons with emotions, aspirations, problems, time constraints and (in the case of most faculty) the very real need for sleep. As overworked online instructors turn to labor-saving shortcuts, such as computer software that can actually grade papers, and are compelled by the financial exigencies of higher education to increase their class sizes to unmanageable proportions, the problem of distancing is becoming increasingly serious [1].