According to a research, the teaching environment plays a huge role and with the right environment, students in an online group can be both more motived and engaged than in a physical group.

If the social environment of the online group is will designed and students enjoy interacting in this way with their peers and teachers, an online group can be just as successful – or even more successful than a physical one, particularly if, in the face to face environment, there is not enough time for establishing interaction and/or students find it difficult to interact or participate in these environments.

Thus engagement is key for either physical or online classes; development is proportional to quantity and quality of involvement and the effectiveness of any educational practice is directly related to the ability of that practice to increase student engagement.