This article identifies social and educational challenges of students engaged in a 1st year, online, communication course. An understanding of the learners’ experience is based on the perceptions of learners who completed the course and from an analysis of how students interact as they participate in collaborative learning activities. Learners identify a range of factors which enhance and impinge upon their learning experience. The analysis of student contributions during online discussions reveals a range of self initiated communication strategies and behaviours which appear to provide learners with the support they require to negotiate and surmount the challenges they perceive within the learning context. The supposition is that relationships with peers provide learners with an effective means of social and educational support and are a key factor in the development of a learner’s sense of community. The thesis has important implications for teaching, learning and curricula development as it places emphasis on the relational aspects of interpersonal communication over activity and frequency of interaction and emphasises the need to facilitate and promote the development of learner-learner relationships within online learning contexts.