Although in e-education instructors and participants rarely meet face to face , that does not mean that for them certain communication skills are less important or necessary. Since two-way communication in online education usually takes place through e-mail, chat and forums, good skills in written communication are extremely important . Written messages in e-education remain recorded for a longer time and are often exposed to inspection of numerous people participating in the process of education, as well as other potential observers.

Success in written electronically-mediated communication requires primarily taking account of several most common sources of errors:
- Insufficient grammar and spelling knowledge of the language in which the messages are written or insufficient attention paid to proper language expressions.
- Accidental and unintentional typing mistakes ("typos") which are the result of insufficient keyboard skills and insufficient check of the text written before it is sent.
- Speed, negligence, disinterest and impulsiveness during the writing and sending of the messages, which results in hasty and imprecise expression, not taking account of the situation in which the communication takes place, as well as the other people included in the interaction.
- Poorly defined objectives before putting together a message which will result in unclear or disfunctional messages, incorrect or insufficiently planned instruction/tasks, uncontrolled effects of communication and bad impressions about the organization and competence of the instructor.

Skills important in e-education can be grouped into two groups: (a) general skills important for different situations and roles; (b) specific skills related to certain tasks or roles in e-education.

General communication skills are relevant in many communication situations. Some of them will be described here in the context of computer-mediated communication:
- Paying attention to others is a skill used to show interest for your interlocutors and their messages and to react in a way which reveals understanding and giving importance to their message i.e. by paraphrasing, asking questions and commenting related to the message as well as supplementing ideas and encouraging discussions about the subject the interlocutor mentioned.
- Self-revelation is a skill of revealing private and partly confidential information about you, your experiences, opinions, attitudes, values and environment evaluation. Self-revelation is important because if encourages the interlocutors to bond, and it should be in accordance with the social norms, the level of mutual relationships, the expectations of the interlocutors and the situation in which they are.
- Self-presentation is connected to the presentation of self, your personality and your activities in a positive light , i.e. in a way which leaves positive impressions in the eyes of the others and which ensures greater probability that a person which is self-revealing be accepted in the desired way and judged positively.
- Persuasion is the ability to influence other people in communication , where the way in which influence is realized is related to acquiring personal credibility , development of good relationship with the interlocutors, preparing appropriate arguments , the use of appropriate tactics when persuading (e.g. appealing to emotions, interest and/or logic) and keeping account of the needs of the person which we are trying to convince (respect, participation in the process of making a decision etc.).
- Interaction management is a skill of manipulating experiences, thoughts and behaviour of other people, in a way which is not contrary to social and ethical norms. This skill is especially important for teachers, instructors, coaches, mentors and similar categories of educational process leaders which use socially acceptable and valuable objectives, in the interest of the participants of the instruction.
- Presence of mind is the ability to select and perform appropriate communicational behaviour in situations that are new, surprising, unforeseen, with unknown interlocutors, as well as in situations in which communication anxiety could appear (e.g. in front of a numerous audience or in the case of unpleasant experiences with the interlocutors).
- Expressiveness is the ability of shaping interesting, illustrative, emotionally coloured, artistically or rhetorically expressive messages which show a certain aesthetical style and the sentiments of the sender, as well as enhance the impressions about the sender as an emotional and direct person, or to enable the showing of certain emotions towards the sender of the message. Verbal expressiveness is important in exchange of text-only messages, as it compensates for the lack of non-verbal channels of communication (i.e. timbre or facial expressions).

Specific communication skills are related to certain tasks and roles which in e-education have to be performed by the lecturer, instructor or mentor, e.g. during videoconferences, moderating a discussion forum, asking questions, dialogues, project management and group leadership.

During a videoconference the presentation skills as well as getting used to the use of video cameras, i.e. training and adjustment to such situation are extremely important. The most important prerequisites for success are detailed preparation, good quality presentational materials (its content and design), appropriate room for videoconference, good technology as well as multiple practicing of the videoconferencing lecture, especially in the case that it is recorded for later replay.

Moderating a discussion forum requires certain experience in such activities so it is recommended to join different forums as a participant and to analyse the behaviour and techniques of other moderators. It also requires a good choice and a convincing suggestion of the discussion topics, allowing for constructive digressions, as well as successfully returning the topic of the discussion in the context of the set goals. Every participant would be given certain attention, with encouragement and compliments as well as unobtrusive activation of the participants who avoid online discussions.

Asking questions is a way to encourage interlocutors to express their opinions, evaluations and suggestions , as well as a way to check their activity and knowledge. Questions should be clear, unambiguous and understandable. The content of the questions with which you are testing knowledge should be related to what the participants probably know from earlier or to what they were supposed to learn during the educational process. Questions which are too difficult for most of the participants are usually not functional, except if they are used as a warning about what the participants should learn. Questions are a good way to manage dialogues or group discussions, as well as to attract attention.

Dialogues are particularly important during distance education since most of the group interaction takes place through exchange of textual messages in forums and chats. A dialogue can have a social, argumentative and instrumental function. Social function of a dialogue is present when using the icebreaker technique, during the exchange of personal and private information between the interlocutors, during chat on different topics, in the case of self-revelation of a person in front of the others etc. Argumentative function of a dialogue is present through the representation of certain attitudes, supplementing a certain thesis with facts or proof, logical argumentation and explanation of the correctness of a certain attitude or evaluation, as well as presentation of evidence and arguments proving why a certain attitude or opinion of the other party is incorrect. Instrumental function of a dialogue is present in its direction towards a certain objective or task which an individual or a group should do in certain time, and it is usually connected in content to the ways of fulfilment of an accepted obligation and mutual coordination of the agents in this process.

Project management and group leadership is connected to processes of setting objectives and how they should be executed, the division of tasks and mutual coordination of the agents, feedback on the progress in the fulfilment of the accepted obligation, possible corrective actions, regulating roles and mutual relationships of the group members, and to the compliments and rewarding of the group members. During these activities it is necessary that the role of the leader be taken, as well as to develop the feeling of community and affiliation with a group, to ensure the recognition and respect for diversity of individual characteristics and interests of all those included in online education, encourage the activity and positive reaction of the group members, to solve disagreements and misunderstandings, to manage the news publishing and development of dialogue between the participants, and to regulate the ratio of private and public communication..

Tips & tricks: Consider your general and specific skills for communication in the educational process and try to apply more the skills which you are good at, as well as to gradually develop or practice other skills which you feel could improve your engagement as an instructor in distance education. Also encourage the application and development of the necessary communication characteristics and skills in participants of online education if you feel that certain skills are important for their success in the process.