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Instructors commonly assume that the successful online course must replicate its live counterpart by including a variety of interactions among student, instructor, and computer. Given the changing lifestyles prompted by an evolving Internet, an increasing student need for autonomy, and student learning styles, highly interactive courses may not necessarily be the best online approach. In this article, I review research dealing with interactive environments, present the results of my own interaction study, and propose an integrative approach for the use of interaction that sees it in light of the increasing integration of the Internet into students' daily lives.
In order to conserve resources and provide additional options and opportunities for stu- dents, many universities provide salary or course-reduction incentives for instructors to convert at least one section of their courses for distance delivery via the Internet. The need to provide these incentives stems from the gen- eral skepticism that a computer environment can ever replicate the live class. In early con- versions from live to online environments, the general consensus was that, for online courses to be successful, that is, for them to have stu- dent experiences and outcomes equivalent to those of live courses, the online environment must replicate the live class as much as possi- ble (Coppola, 2005; Gilbert & Moore, 1998). And because classroom instructors often believe that the live class is the right way, or, as Wagner (1994) puts it, "the real thing" (p. 9), they attempt to duplicate the experience online by providing written lectures, tests, and quizzes, class discussions, in-class exercises, and collaborative projects. As a result, incorporating a variety of interactions among students and instructor has become an expected feature of the online classroom.
Berge (1999) presents a perhaps representative argument for the incorporation of interaction into Web -based Internet courses. Though recognizing the widely held belief that high levels of interaction are desirable, he acknowledges the lack of evidence supporting the use of interaction for improving the quality of learning for distance-education students. Referencing instead studies of student satisfaction and persistence, and arguing that interaction is "central to the expectations of teachers and learners," he concludes that "interaction will continue to be seen as a critical component of formal education, regardless of whether there is...