Guidelines for Facilitating Interactivity 
in Distance Education

Here are some basic guidelines for fostering civil, humanizing community discourse in cyberspace and for effectively using facilitation, moderation, and interaction skills in distance education to vitally engage participants for effective distance education.

• The instructor functions as a moderator and equal member of the e-learning community.

(1) The instructor does not impart knowledge in a unidirectional way as an expert.

(2) Since effective e-learning is not passive, it is facilitated by interactions and
        collaborations between students and instructors.

(3) In online learning, a moderator's postings are "interventions," not "contributions."

(4) The "interventions" don't assert authority but prod learning to go deeper.

(5) Inquiry, not the teacher's information or authority, is at the center of interactions.

(6) The moderator is not at the center of e-learning; the learning always is.

(7) Educational facilitators encourage dialogue as inquiry.

(8) Effective distance instructors use inductive, expansive questioning.

(9) Facilitators promote honesty, responsiveness, relevance and respect.

(10) Effective distance educators do not dominate but empower their students.

(11) Distance instructors gain knowledge of their students by using asynchronous,
        threaded discussion forums with an active bulletin board and e-mail dialogue.

• The learning community is especially significant in effective distance education.
  
  (1) Participation in learning is important.
  
  (2) Students verify their active engagement and critical thinking in the learning
  process through posting their thoughts and responses.
  
  
• Distance education needs to be interactive.
  
  (1) It is collaborative learning.
  
  (2) Even when postings are asynchronous, the sense that participants are collaborating in    
       common time can be facilitated if they are working on a common project or are
        participating in a common thread in a discussion or conversation about a topic.

 

• Distance education students share the following characteristics: independent pursuit of continuing education, motivation, high expectations, self-discipline, older age than average students, and a serious attitude toward learning.
  
• Class size in most online courses should be small, around twenty. Small groups should be around five.
  
• Goals of online teaching should include facilitating higher-level, thinking skills, such as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.
  
• Effective distance teaching strategies include posting biographies, interactivity projects, collaboration, required participation, inductive questioning, flexibility with topics, and minimal technology requirements.
  
• Students and instructors critically need initial training and ongoing technical support in terms of human assistance and appropriate software.
  
• Instructors and students need to accept technical challenges at times.

• Web sites for distance courses should include syllabi pages with course goals, objectives, requirements, procedures, policies, schedules, required materials, and contact information.
  
• Web sites for online instruction should provide pages for announcements, resources, links, message boards, and student pages.

Howard, D. (2002). Enhanced by technology, not diminished: A practical guide to effective, distance communication.         New York: McGraw Hill.