Interactivity

Types of Interaction

The following table provides examples of activities and tools you can use to enhance interactions.

Student Interactions  

Activities and Tools

With Course Content
  • Create interactive course materials and activities that engage the student in some way.
    Intersperse text with opportunities for student reflection, or self assessments that could include puzzles, games, use of rollovers, decision making etc.
  • Encourage students to discover ideas, new information rather than include everything in the text. A web quest activity will assist the student with discovery learning.
  • Use multimedia to engage students with diverse learning styles
  • Integrate learning objects into the course materials

 

With Other Students
  • Create Blogs, Wikis, discussion forums, etc. to encourage interaction with others. Online debates, role playing, and group assignments promote communication and collaboration.
  • Facilitate online instruction groups that are goal-oriented, focused, project-based and inquiry-oriented
  • Assign projects that require co-operative interaction and knowledge-sharing

 

With the Teacher
  • Use live web conferencing through chat or Elluminate to make contact with students
  • Respond to students questions quickly (within 48 hours)
  • Ask students to share their thoughts on questions that arise within a course
  • Establish a social presence online without dominating the discussion areas
  • Seek student feedback or suggestions

 

It should be noted that a frequent reason for student withdrawal from online courses, is a sense of alienation due to lack of contact with other students and the teacher.