The US Department of Education has established federal guidelines to measure instructor presence in online courses through Regular Substantive Interaction, often abbreviated as RSI. These requirements serve as a standard to regulate online education to ensure distance learning is engaging, effective, and comparable in quality to traditional face-to-face instruction. Institutions will often rely on this metric during accreditation processes to measure and evaluate the means in which an instructor is engaging with their students.
These guidelines draw distinctions between Correspondence Education (i.e. Coursera courses relying on self-graded quizzes and self-paced content) and Distance/Online Education (i.e. instructor-facilitated discussions, office hours, assignment feedback).
While online courses at Montclair will possess qualities of both correspondence and distance education, it is important to ensure student engagement through regular substantive interaction. Doing so benefits both students and faculty alike, creating more engaging learning experiences for students while adhering to federal guidelines which risk financial aid distribution if determined to be out of compliance.
34 C.F.R. §600.2 defines a correspondence course as: A course provided by an institution under which the institution provides instructional materials, by mail or electronic transmission, including examinations on the materials, to students who are separated from the instructor. Interaction between the instructor and student is limited, is not regular and substantive, and is primarily initiated by the student.
Distance education is defined in 34 C.F.R. §600.2 as1. Education that uses technology to deliver instruction to students who are separated from the instructor and to support regular and substantive interaction between the students and the instructor, either synchronously or asynchronously. For purposes of this definition, substantive interaction is engaging students in teaching, learning, and assessment, consistent with the content under discussion, and also includes at least two of the following— i. Providing direct instruction; ii. Assessing or providing feedback on a student’s coursework; iii. Providing information or responding to questions about the content of a course or competency; iv. Facilitating a group discussion regarding the content of a course or competency; or v. Other instructional activities approved by the institution’s or program’s accrediting agency.
Providing Regular Substantive Interaction in Your Course
Consider the following strategies to satisfy RSI federal guidelines while engaging your students in synchronous and asynchronous online courses.
Class discussion activities enable students in online courses to share their opinions and reactions to course content while engaging with their peers and instructor. It allows for more fluid exchanges of ideas which are harder to capture in assignments and exams. To enhance discussions, consider using Padlet or Hypothesis as alternatives or complements to Canvas’ discussion tool to foster greater engagement. Enables alternative versions of discussion across different templates, such as on timelines, walls, etc. Learn More about Padlet! Social annotation tool which connects students to share thoughts and ideas about specific passages within literature and/or multimedia. Learn More about Hypothesis! Students can leverage productivity/collaboration tools to collaborate on small assignments or larger, chunked projects. Implementing online group work requires various considerations, especially in asynchronous online courses, regarding student availability and time management – see the ITDS Teamwork and Collaboration resource for more information. Below are some recommended peer collaboration tools: Suite of collaborative tools, including Docs, Slides, Sheets, and more. Learn More about Google Workspace! Synchronous whiteboard tool for team collaboration. All Canvas users have free access to Lucid. Activate your account & start using it today! View the Teacher/Student Guide and Learn More about Lucid! Native group workspace functionality within Canvas enabling groups to communicate, share files, announcements, and more. Learn More about Canvas Groups! When done collaboratively, mind mapping can promote collective knowledge construction and analysis. Mind mapping is a strategy that helps students visualize and analyze difficult concepts. Beginning with a prompt or topic, students identify supporting themes or subtopics and illustrate connections using branches, color, and illustrations (or other media). Students can work in small or large groups to create mind maps to aid in brainstorming, generating outlines, creating presentations, or reflecting on material. Refer to the ITDS Mind Mapping webpage to learn more about mind mapping and compare tools we recommend for this strategy. Davis, V., Dowd, C., Poulin, R., Silverman, D. (2020, September 16). Pursuing Regulatory Compliance for Digital Instruction in Response to Covid-19: Policy Playbook. Every Learner Everywhere. http://www.everylearnereverywhere.org/resourcesFacilitate Online Discussions
Padlet
Hypothesis
Promote Peer Collaboration
Google Workspace
Lucid
Canvas Groups
Collaborative Mindmapping