Interaction in Distance Learning

One of the tasks for Week 3 was to read an article about Incorporating Interaction into your Distance Learning Course, published by Worchester Polytechnic Institute. The article describes several possible benefits of interaction in a distance course:

Learner>Content interaction, which results from students examining the course content and participating in class activities, is most effective when exposing students to a wide variety of learning resources.

Learner>Learner interaction, can take place when two or more students work together. This type of interaction is most effective at helping students build a sense of community, as well as allowing them to feel actively engaged in their own learning. Being more actively engaged, gives students a feeling of accomplishment and autonomy and this can motivate students to deepen their learning.

Learner>Instructor interaction is intended to reinforce student understanding of course materials and to provide feedback. This allows students to determine if they are mastering the content of the course. If they feel like they are making progress, then, much like the point above, this can motivate them to further their learning.

My Comments

In terms of what I learnt during my CELTA training, a balanced mix of individual, pair and group work is emphasised for classroom-based teaching.

As the teacher is but one person, and the students may be many, one of the main CELTA principles is that there should be less T.T.T.(Teacher Talk Time) and more S.T.T. (Student Talk Time). Using the ideas mentioned above, this manifests itself as a short Learner>Instructor Interaction, where the teacher pre-teaches blocking* vocabulary or introduces a new grammar point. This is then followed by a series of increasingly difficult and varied tasks (Learner >Content Interaction) which students may work on, on their own, with a partner and then in a group (Learner>Learner Interaction).

*blocking vocabulary are words we assume the students do not know and which may prevent the students from immediately participating in the pre-arranged tasks that will help them practice the language.

Social Pedagogies

Another task was to read about Social Pedagogies, published by Indiana University. The articles describes how social interaction is strongly related to student motivation, for example, by engaging students to collaborate on group projects. If these projects are based on real knowledge, as in, a real-life problem, for a real-life, authentic audience, then this pushes the students to deepen their own understanding in order to find and present a viable solution.

In terms of online tools, students can use online blogging, podcasts, websites or tweets in order to facilitate their project work, and therefore facilitate social interaction.  Knowing that this work will be viewed by their peers, as well as their teacher, can motivate students to be more accountable for their own work.