Patterns of Interaction in Online Learning

Online Learning: Interactivity, or Lack of Interactivity

With the exponential growth in information and communication technology, educators are presented with opportunities and challenges in terms of the use of the internet for formal educational purposes and web-based instruction (Boettcher, 1999; Downing, 2001; Mc. Naught & Lam, 2005). The development of metacognition in undergraduates is an area of focus for both traditional classroom based and online learning environments (Downing et al, 2009). For example, the impact of social and cultural factors on cognitive development has long been recognised, with even Piaget (1977) acknowledging the impact of social factors and peer interaction on cognitive development, and more recent studies have generally confirmed this view (Downing et al. 2007). Consequently, the need to cultivate and maintain interactivity within online learning environments remains a major challenge. Previous research has generated consistent concern about a perceived lack of interaction in online educational environments (Hron & Friedrich, 2003), prompted by the probably erroneous assumption that our ‘traditional’ classrooms are filled with the vital learning interactivity that online environments supposedly lack. For example, according to Robertson and Klotz (2002), the literature provides evidence that online courses are often configured and delivered in a style associated with independent study and that, whilst this format might work in some instances, it leaves what they call a ‘missing link’ in student learning. Consequently, researchers argue that students in an online learning environment lack opportunities to experience the benefits of both structured dialogue and the sense of community that can be created in the more traditional on-site classroom environment. Cook, (2000), Seabolt and Arends, (2000), and Muirhead, (2001) support this view that the interactivity of the traditional classroom is a vital, yet missing part of web-based instruction, and argue that online interaction is somehow flawed because it does not allow for the social and emotional interaction allegedly taking place in traditional classrooms. Downing and Chim, (2004b) take a very different approach, investigating the relationship between personality type, preferred learning style, and different learning environments, and demonstrating that classroom based ‘introverts’ behave more like ‘extraverts’ when involved in online discussion forums, and that students with a more reflective learning style are actually more active in online discussions than when based in the classroom. In some ways, well-designed online learning can be seen as a form of problem-based learning which requires the same facilitation or scaffolding that is evident in the latter approach (Downing et al, 2009). In fact, it is perhaps an anomaly that the criticisms directed at online learning are not often used against the problem-based approach which is often effectively online learning without being online whereby students are given problems to follow up and not always in collaboration with their peers!