As a teacher who has experience with online teaching and learning I can vouch for what you say. Despite student access to an elearning management system, the majority who are ‘active’ learners use email to contact me despite there being many different routes that could permit them to do the same thing within the LMS. The ratio is far in excess of 95%. As well, it is often found that many would-be-communicators simply do not use the LMS for that purpose even when they are logged on. The phenomenon of lurking in an online environment is well known. I often wonder if a major contributing factor causing this is brought about by the barriers inherent in the difficulties met when using the learning software.