Is "fellow course members" formal

Question

If one enters

"fellow course members"

In Google one only gets 8k+ hits. It is correct? And a formal way to describe people that took the same course you did? If not, what is? Is there some reason it has only a limited amount of hits?

Answer 1

I'd never describe someone who took a course as a "course member"; although it's clear what you mean, it sounds odd. "Fellow course member" sounds even weirder.

The idiomatic term is just "classmates". For clarity, we'd spell things out: "we were in the same algebra class", or "they are all taking geometry together."

Answer 2

Agreed...classmates or attendees, hmm...maybe "fellow course members" was the simplest manner to abridge a class that is not a class or a seminar and members to include both men and women!