Abstract: The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to determine if use of an avatar in an online course could generate feelings of face-to-face contact among students, and to see if students in the course with an avatar were more successful than students in the same course without one. Master’s students (n=32) taking the same course in three different formats (online with an avatar, online with voice recordings, and face-to-face) took a survey about their perceived need for face-to-face interaction in learning and their success in the course. Kruskal-Wallis one-way analyses of variance revealed that, for those in the avatar class, perceived need for face-to-face contact was not related to success. For those without the avatar, however, perceived need for face-to-face was negatively related to success.