Abstract:

This study seeks to explore how students experience and understand the interaction with their instructor on an online course. Two aspects can be considered in the interaction between teacher and lecturer throughout the learning process. The first is inherently instructive, while the second one conveys the psychological aspect of the relationship. In traditional learning, the interpersonal connection develops as a result of the face to face encounter with the lecturer. On an online course, as a result of the physical absence of the lecturer, non-verbal communication does not usually exist and most interactions are managed through written communication. It can be assumed that such significant transformation in the communication channels will also affect the nature of the relationship between the lecturer and the students.

The study is founded both on qualitative and quantitative research conducted during a whole year. The research was conducted in Israel during the 2015-2016 academic year and included fifty students who responded to QTI (Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction) and ten students who participated in an in-depth interview. The aim of this research was to examine to what extent the lecturer’s interpersonal behaviors on an online course are acknowledged by academic students of education; and how these students describe their learning experience on an online course.

For the purpose of the study, qualitative and quantitative methods have been applied by means of the QTI questionnaire together with the inductive analysis of the open interviews to ten students. The findings confirm that students experience interpersonal relationships with the instructor during an online course, and describe the learner’s perspective of the learning experience in such courses. Furthermore, the findings show that the students’ experiences of the online course and of their relationship with the lecturer are connected to four main categories, and a new model has been proposed to design online courses that can maximize positive interactions between lecturers and students so that they can promote the students’ success in the course.