What is Mixed or Balance Interaction Style

Past studies indicate that students demonstrate different online interaction styles, which consist of the ways or habits students acquire knowledge from computer-mediated discussions (Sutton, 2001). Such interaction styles include the active interaction style (Beaudion, 2002), the vicarious interaction style (Sutton, 2001), and the mixed or balanced-interaction style. The purposes of this chapter are to: (1) examine relative studies on students’ online interaction styles; (2) propose a hypothesis that students’ online interaction styles can change during the course of computer-mediated discussion; (3) conduct a case study on students’ online interaction styles to test the hypothesis. This chapter reviews current issues related to students’ online interaction styles. It offers practical suggestions on the design of online learning environments, instructor’s role in online courses, and educational tools to facilitate students in adapting to more active interaction styles in computer-mediated learning environments.