With the containment required by covid-19 pandemic, language teaching rushed into online education. Considering the importance of a community spirit to facilitate motivation, which factors facilitate the success of an online language teaching experience? Which ones complicate it? Through a comparison of two courses – one in teaching Spanish as a foreign language at the beginner level, the other in teaching French as a second language at the advanced level – this article aims to set out some avenues for meeting the needs of learners.