Abstract:

The purpose of this article is to give ideas of how to develop interaction on a blended online course. At the Satakunta University of Applied Sciences at Kuninkainen campus, all courses have been taught online for several years, and most studies follow the progressive inquiry approach. Students can choose professional studies from, and specialize in, the areas of Business Law, Public Administration, Finance or Management. Students are mainly 25 to 55 years old, studying alongside working, and they live all over Finland or abroad.

An online course is a chance to learn without restrictions of time or place. Because the students and teachers never necessarily meet during the studies face-to-face, online courses are tailored as interactive as possible. Often, live online sessions have been considered as the only way of interacting on online courses; however, there are many more ways to increase communication and interaction online between the teacher and students or among students. Attention must be paid to interaction both during study sessions online and when doing assignments.

A teacher’s main communication channels used at Satakunta University of Applied Sciences are a web conferencing system called HILL and the Moodle learning management system. Students communicate with each other by using many tools, e.g. Eduhill, Skype for business, Facebook, WhatsApp and so on.

During the study sessions online, teachers are able to share material to students either via computers or the smart board. Students are either at home or at their workplace and are able to ask or comment orally and are also able to share their own material through their computers. Furthermore, it is possible for the teacher to divide the students into small groups for group work or group discussions during an online session.

In addition to online sessions, courses contain various kinds of assignments, as a rule at least one group work. In group work, students study the subject together and share the information to each other. A group work can include for example discussions on a learning platform, writing a report or giving a presentation. A report can be shared to other students and presentations can either be recorded or presented during a study session online. Usually, it is required that other students comment on the reports or presentations or they are required to do a peer assessment.

When doing assignments, students communicate either in writing on a learning platform or on different cloud services or online during the online sessions. All students have their own online meeting room where they can discuss in small groups.

Working together during online sessions and seeking solutions for research problems are excellent training for any expert position in the students’ later professional lives.

Keywords:

Blended online course, interaction, group work.