CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 History of distance learning
Distance education dates back to at least as early as 1728, when an advertisement in the Boston Gazette…Caleb Philips, teacher of the new method of shorthand was seeking students for lessons to be sent weekly. Modern distance education has practiced at least since Isaac Pitman taught shorthand in Great Britain via correspondence in the 1840s. The development of postal service in the 19th century leads to the growth of commercial correspondence colleges with nation-wide reach. In the twentieth century, Radio, Television, and the Internet have all been used to further distance education. Computers and the internet have made distance learning distribution easier Shanam (2008).
2.2 Defining Interaction
Thurmond (2003) defined interaction as the learner’s engagement with the course content, other learners, the instructor, and the technological medium used in the course. Through interactions with other learners, the instructor, and the technology, it will result in a reciprocal exchange of information. The exchange of information is intended to enhance knowledge development in the learning environment. Depending on the nature of the course content, the reciprocal exchange may be absent – such as in the case of paper printed content.
Ultimately, the goal of interaction is to increase understanding of the course content or mastery of the defined goals.
The importance of interaction in distance education generally is acknowledged (Billings, Connors, and Skiba (2001) and the concept of interaction in distance education has been the focus of much research (Billings et al., 2001). Some practices include developing reciprocity and cooperation, engaging in active learning, providing quick feedback, emphasizing the amount of time dedicated to a task, communicating high expectations and respecting diversity.
2.2.1 Understanding Interactions in Distance Education:
Interaction in a traditional classroom is much different than the interaction that occurs in a web-based course. The differences in interaction are largely due to the instructional media used in web-based courses. Despite the difference in the pedagogical mediums, the interactive component that lecturer design into a traditional classroom course is just as important – if not more so – in the web-based course. Therefore, because of the proliferation of web-based courses and the differences in interaction between the traditional and web-based pedagogical platforms, a vital need exists to assess the effectiveness of interactivity in a web-based course.
2.3 Types of Interaction
We have four types of interaction which are:
a) Learner – content.
b) Learner – learner.
c) Learner – instructor and
d) Face-Face interaction.
A. Learner-Content Interaction
Learner-content interaction results from students examining/studying the course content and from participating in class activities. Part of the learning process includes how students interact with the content presented in the web- based course. Studies on learner-content interaction were not always easy to discern and may have been tied to other variables such as learner-learner interactions or learner-interface interactions. Factors that affected students’ perception of learning the course content included continuous contact with the content (Leasure, Davis, and Thievon, 2000), clarity of course design (Swan, 2001), students may perceive learning in a web-based course easier if the material is presented using a similar format for each content area. A key to enhancing learner-content interactions appeared to be clarity of course design. Streamlining structural course content for simplicity and repetitiveness may help enhance learner-content interactions and help compensate for the lack of face-to-face meetings. (Atack and Rankin, 2002) one barrier to interacting with the course content is the lack of time to participate in coursework. Participants reported that they did not have time to access the content at work, indicating that their work environment probably was not an ideal environment for learner- content interactions. The issue of lack of time extended to the home environment because courses had to compete with others to access their computer at home.
B. Learner-Learner Interaction
The interaction that occurs among students is extremely dissimilar between a web-based course and the traditional classroom course. The Internet format excludes physical interaction, which may have an impact on learning (Beard and Harper, 2002). Learner- learner interaction can be between one student and another or between several students. In order for effective learning to occur, four types of peer behaviour are necessary in a computer mediated environment:
(i) participation (ii) response (iii) provision of affective feedback, and (iv) short, focused messaging. Team work or collaborative learning, involves students
working together in groups to complete academic assignments. Although the interactions that occur in the web-based course are through an electronic medium, the electronic format seems to be an effective medium for dialogue (Larson &Keiper, 2002). Larson and Keiper (2002) examined discussions that occurred in a secondary Social Studies course and compared qualitative data gathered from face-to-face in class discussions, as well as electronic threaded discussions, the researchers reported that some of the students who often did not participate in the face-to-face classroom discussions talked more in the online discussions. Additionally, students have reported enjoying the interaction and attention more from their instructors and peers in an online course (Aase, 2000).
