The aim of this article is to present an analysis of the process of emergence of a virtual community of learners as part of a collaborative distance learning approach. Therefore, we offer an empirical analysis of the initial development phase of a virtual community of learners, which we name the engagement phase, in order to better describe and understand it. To this end, we analyse the communication interactions between students on the basis of the study of language and instrumental forms of communication carried out in asynchronous exchanges (via a discussion forum). The aim of this article is to analyse the emergence of the Learner’s viral community by analysing the interactions between subjects communicating via a discussion forum. We propose an empirical analysis of the initial phase of development that we name the commitment phase in the collaborative online learning setting. We will present an empirical analysis of an interactive dynamic through the analysis of linguistic (electronic conversation) and non-linguistic (artefacts, intermediate objectives) forms of communication.