Abstract:

Having taken my first online course in the joint doctoral programme of my doctoral studies on cognition and learning, I experienced a different pattern of interaction. In the beginning, I questioned the purpose of the course and why it should be taken online and not in the face to face format. I have been used to all through my studies. But as we progressed in the course, I was not only encouraged but was deeply engaged with other colleagues in the discussion forums. I happened to be one of the introverts who hardly talked in class and would not willingly respond to an instructor’s questions except the ones directed to me. The reverse was the case in the online course. We had questions emanating from the reading materials and had the option of attending to any that appealed to us. On the contrary, the face to face course allowed a lot of diversion from the content and the questions were not so structured. One of the final appraisal comments from my instructor, considering my reflections on reading materials, contribution to discussions, and constructive argument on discourse in the online course, was
“…the second half of discussion and participation was also strong. I noticed that you made a special effort to comment on all the papers and that really brought a lot of perspective to those conversations.”

This was a motivation to me and I considered the need to look into the patterns of interaction in asynchronous online discussion forums as technology had, to some extent, helped me to communicate freely within the context of web-based learning. This was the kind of social interaction I thought I might not be able to participate in because I had never taken any online course before.

The Shalom, Isreali, Markovitzky, and Lipsitz (2015) study reported that an interaction effect was found for perceived success such that those high in social anxiety perceived greater success in computer mediated communication (CMC) than in face to face (FTF) while those low in social anxiety showed no differences across conditions. When students move from a teacher-led format of discussion to a student-led one, they face multiple demands, including interpersonal, interactional, and response related issues (Maloch, 2002). Students construct a shared understanding of a given topic through argumentation, discussing the significance of personal beliefs until mutual agreement is reached (Lazonder, Wilhelm & Ootes, 2003). Pena-Shaff and Nicholls (2003) acknowledged that statements of clarification, interpretation, conflict, assertion, judgment and reflection appeared to be most directly related to the process of knowledge construction.

As I noticed, just like in any other course I had taken, irrespective of whether face to face or online, the patterns of interaction are learner to learner, instructor to learner, learner to content, and instructor to content, however, these interactions are multidirectional. Given these patterns of interaction, the purpose of this paper is to review the pattern of interaction between instructor and learner orchestrated by instructor in online courses. My choice of the literature review was informed to find out the level of interaction display by learner with intrapersonal attributes as technology is speedily gaining ground in education particularly in higher education.

Keywords:

Discussion, intrapersonal, pattern of interaction, technology.