Web-Based Technologies for Ensuring Interaction in Online Courses: Faculty Choice and Student Perception of Web-Based Technologies for Interaction in Online Economics

Background

Overall reviews suggest that teaching strategies in economics at 2- and 4-year colleges have gradually adjusted to the advent of new technologies. Instructors incorporate more interactive software and games to enhance student learning of concepts, and graphs and charts to develop analytical skills, thereby creating active student-learning environments. However, because technology tools are becoming vital teaching aids in online economics courses, it is important that instructors know how to assess a piece of technology. Faculty choice of technology may not correspond with students’ needs for interaction. Drouin (2008) reported that “while some students enjoyed, needed, or desired social interaction, some students did not desire a sense of community (SOC) in an online course environment” (p. 267). Because students have different needs for online interaction, it is important to investigate whether faculty choices of technology consider the disparities in various learning settings, including economics, and meet students’ expectations.

Consequently, technology resources can be wasted on providing interaction that does not necessarily enhance student learning. A particular level of social interaction may be ideal in online communities and care should be taken to avoid exceeding that level (Rourke, Anderson, Garrison, & Archer, 1999). Future research should focus on qualifying the “ideal amount of student–student and student–instructor interaction within different types of online interactive instructional environments so that educators are better able to construct effective social settings within the online classroom” (Drouin, 2008, p. 281). Though it might be unlikely to find the perfect mix between independent study and interactive learning strategies and activities that meet the needs of all students, it is advisable to aim for an ideal mixture (Anderson, 2003).