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The Role of Interaction in e-Learning


One of the most significant components of learning experiences, both in traditional education and distance education, has been identified as Interaction. According to Berge (1999), interaction in a virtual environment can be broadly defined as, 

"two-way communication among two or more people within a learning context, with the purposes of either task/instruction completion or social relationship building, that includes a means for teacher and learner to receive feedback and for adaptation to occur based upon information and activities with which the participants are engaged".

Wagner (1994) defines interaction as:

"reciprocal events that require at least two objects and two actions. Interactions occur when these objects and events mutually influence one another. An instructional interac-tion is an event that takes place between a learner and the learner's environment. Its purpose is to respond to the learner in a way intended to change his or her behavior toward and educational goal. Instructional interactions have two purposes: to change learners and to move them toward achieving their goals."

Weller (1988) thinks that interaction gives students the opportunity to modify the curriculum to suit their needs and abilities so they can get feedback for their activities. Instructional transactions are defined by Merrill, Li, and Jones (1990) as real-time, reciprocal, dynamic interactions between the learner and technology. Milheim (1996) also describes interaction as the two-way exchange of information between the learner and the content. In contrast to finished tasks or classroom technologies, students frequently characterize interaction as dialogue and feedback between and among teachers and students (Jones, 1996).

There are various frameworks and taxonomies that have been used to categorize the term 'interaction'. By presenting a framework of three different sorts of interactions—learner-content, learner-instructor, and learner-learner—Moore (1989) added to the conversation. Learner-interface was a fourth sort of interaction that Hillman, Willis, and Gunawardena (1994) introduced to the discussion.

The interactions between and among the students and instructor are the key to effective Web-based teaching and learning. In e-learning, interaction has risen to the top of the agenda. Through the employment of synchronous and asynchronous communication tools, the online media encourages interaction. The integral parts of online courses, in the opinion of many educators, are Web-based tools (Pan and Sullivan) (2005). Emerging technologies have given distance education designers many additional chances to diversify mediums and teaching methods and to make group learning models more accessible throughout the past two decades. The way distance educators perceive how interaction in distant learning might be conducted has also undergone considerable modifications. Interaction is crucial for determining student success in face to face and online courses.

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