Interaction is central to the learning process. It is difficult to imagine an educational experience that does not involve some sort of interaction.
Several theorists have identified different modes of interaction in educational contexts such as that between and among students, teachers, and the content that is to be learned (Anderson, 2003a, 2003b; Bernard et al., 2009; Kanuka, 2011; Moore, 1989).
The three principal modes of interaction in education are student-student, student-teacher, and student-content.
STUDENT-TEACHER INTERACTIONS
- Lectures (provided students can ask questions and offer comments)
- Q&A sessions
- Feedback on assignments
- Postings and responses in discussion forums
- Emails
- Office hour visits
- Zoom meetings
STUDENT-CONTENT INTERACTIONS
- Listening to a lecture (live or recorded)
- Watching instructional videos
- Taking notes
- Performing research
- Memorizing facts and algorithms
- Metacognitive strategies such as journaling, creating index cards, etc.
- Reading commentary in an LMS or in printed materials
STUDENT-STUDENT INTERACTIONS
- Cooperative learning activities
- Collaborative research and design
- Problem- or project-based learning
- Debates
- Discussion forums
- Social media such as blogs or wikis
- Study groups
- Virtual communities
Literature suggests that learning can take place when only one type of interaction takes place.
Imagine that student A learns about trignometric ratios by asking questions of his or her instructor (student-teacher interaction), student B learns about trignometric ratios by joining a study group of fellow students (student-student interaction), and student C learns about trignometric ratios by reading about it in a book (student-content interaction).
If, following their different learning activities, the students perform equally well on an assessment of their knowledge of trignometric ratios, we would be justified in stating that there is no significant difference between the three modes of interaction with respect to fostering learning as measured by student achievement.