Designing for Interactions

In an educational setting, different interactions play a crucial role in online courses: student/content, student/teacher, and teacher/content. Learning designers must carefully incorporate these interactions to foster engagement, deeper learning, and a sense of community.

Synchronous courses offer the easiest way to encourage interaction since they mimic real classroom experiences. Students can participate in real-time virtual classrooms, Zoom calls, and active chats, allowing them to engage with instructors and peers, ask questions, and join discussions, fostering a strong sense of connectivity.

Asynchronous courses present a challenge to include all forms of interaction, but it’s still achievable. Student-teacher interactions can happen through blog posts, pre-recorded videos, and emails. Student content interactions are self-paced, but online assignments can be included. Peer interactions among students are more difficult in asynchronous courses, and instructors have control over the level of asynchronicity and class connectedness by setting deadlines and communication options.

My Own Interactions

I have a strong preference for attending classes in person because of the personal interactions and socialization it offers. However, I am grateful for the opportunity to take online courses, especially during the summer when I can be with my family and old friends from childhood. I appreciate the efforts my instructors put into fostering connectedness in the edci classes I am taking. Each class has learning pods/groups, and we have a lot of group assignments, which is great because it allows me to reach out to my peers about course content. I particularly enjoy the discussions. Having assigned groups is much better than the breakout rooms my instructors would assign during covid when in-person classes were moved online. I find that I can connect better with my group members, and we all respect each other’s time and opinions.

Reference

Anderson, T. (2003). Getting the Mix Right Again: An Updated and Theoretical Rationale for Interaction. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 4(2). https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v4i2.149