The Problem: People learn best when they can “talk” (i.e., spontaneously & reciprocally interact) with other people.  Piaget’s assimilation/accommodation  Vygotsky’s internalized dialogue  Rogoff’s & Collins “cognitive apprenticeship”  Lack of this interaction has been a problem for online learning since its beginning: (Mulienberg & Berge, 2005; Roberts & McInnerney, 2007; Song, Singleton, Hill, & Koh, 2003)

and still is: Kim et al., 2005: “Difficulty in communicating with peers [and] the absence of face-to-face contacts" is OL students’ greatest challenge. Keengwe et al., 2013: “Due to the absence of face-to-face contacts, students and instructors are usually faced with the lack of active social presence and meaningful interactions in online learning.” Baran et al. 2013: Six “exemplary” OL instructors felt “they were not that successful in terms of building relationships with students because of the absence of immediacy and sensory and expressive information, [and] nonverbal cues.” BTW: This is (still) a major issue in f-t-f classes in higher education, too...

My hopes for this conversation:  Discussing individual experiences with various levels and types of interaction in OL learning, to consider need, functions, disadvantages.  Sharing failures & successes with various interaction structures & strategies (& the tech that enabled them).  Possible ongoing communication and potential scholarly collaboration

Questions to consider: 1. Why are you are interested in increasing interaction in OL? What experiences have made you feel this is important?

Questions to consider: 1. Why are you are interested in increasing interaction in OL? What experiences have made you feel this is important? 1. Which 2 topics do you want to talk about?  Synchronous versus asynchronous (+’s & -’s)  Synchronous video-conferencing as one option  Promoting small group interaction in OL courses  Asynchronus interaction through Google +, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, blogs and other social media  The Discussion Board - should/can it be saved?  OTHERS?

Questions to consider: 1. Why are you are interested in increasing interaction in OL? What experiences have made you feel this is important? 1. Which 2 topics do you want to talk about? 3. What’s one strategy that has worked for you (even if imperfectly….)?