We are interested in what aspects of communication and interaction between students and teachers contribute to a good environment for online learning.
What features of online courses create a learning environment that fosters interaction among students and between students and teachers? Which of these aspects of interaction and communication are important to create good opportunities to learn?
In a first step to answer these questions, we gather data from surveys sent to all students taking online classes at UniDistance Suisse. Survey-questions aim at features of the online course, including the forms of teaching implemented and several aspects of communication and interaction. As outcome measures, we collect self-reports of learning success, overall evaluation of the course quality, and the grades the students achieved. We aim to identify statistical relationships between features of the course and outcome measures.
In a second step, we plan to conduct follow-up interviews with a subgroup of teachers and students to gain deeper insights into central aspects identified in the first step.
