When managing Distance Learning systems, the concept of distance itself must be extended in order to accomplish all the different ways students deal with the feeling of distance. This article proposes a way for reducing the feeling of distance through the use of a distributed virtual reality environment named PIAGET, in which all the learning process agents can share learning objects - like solids, blackboard or notebooks - in a hybrid, collaborative way, while they interact among themselves and with such objects in as if they were in a real classroom. In order to measure the efficiency of such strategy, specific metrics are proposed.