Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present the design of a context-aware service for synchronous support in web-based educational systems. Design/methodology/approach: The proposed service supports synchronous interaction among tutors and students, based on their current context, thus increasing the communication channels, the reasoning and the exchanging of ideas. Findings: The proposed service introduced here gives additional value to distance learning educational systems, as it transforms the web from a medium primarily used for asynchronous communication into a synchronous one. Originality/value: As educational institutes move their content online and open universities support lessons through the internet, services like the proposed one are of general value. (Contains 1 table and 7 figures.)