. Moore (2013) found thatTD was the single biggest predictor of student satisfaction in online classes, a finding confirmed by morerecent research as well (Weidlich & Bastiaens, 2018). Low online retention rates are explained, in part, bythe potentially high barrier to contact and relationship-building between faculty and students in onlinecourses.

found that facultyperceived themselves as more accessibleto students than the students did. Studentsreported that because they were paying fortheir instructors’ time, they expected timelyresponses to their emails. Additionally,Foral et al. were surprised to learn that thestudents in the campus courses expected aquicker response from an email than did theonline students

Transactional distance is “...a psychological and communications gap, aspace of potential misunderstanding betweenthe inputs of instructor and those of thelearner” (Moore, 1991, p. 2) created by thephysical distance separating online instructorsfrom their learners

More importantly, transactional distance is not a static measurement, but variable with dynamics based on the interaction or gap between any one instructor and any one student—including face-to-face environments—and includes both psychological and communications space where there is potential for misunderstandings.  The space and time gap can be closed with deliberate elements of interaction by the instructor