Regular and Substantive Interaction in Online Courses

An institution ensures regular interaction between a student and an instructor or instructors by:

• Providing the opportunity for substantive interactions with the student on a predictable and regular basis commensurate with the length of time and the amount of content in the course or competency; and
• Monitoring the student’s academic engagement and success and ensuring that an instructor is responsible for promptly and proactively engaging in substantive interaction with the student when needed, on the basis of such monitoring, or upon request by the student.

The Department of Education (DoE) defines “substantive interaction” as engaging students in teaching, learning, and assessment, consistent with the content under discussion, and also includes at least two of the following:

• Providing direct instruction,
• Assessing or providing feedback on a student’s coursework,
• Providing information or responding to questions about the content of a course or competency,
• Facilitating a group discussion regarding the content of a course or competency or,
• Other instructional activities approved by the institution’s or program’s accrediting agency.

Please take time to review Park’s Online and Blended Course Participation policy, which helps describe the institution’s expectations for high-quality, interactive learning experiences in our distance courses. These requirements apply to online courses and the online asynchronous portions of blended courses. We realize that each class will be different, but all distance education classes should support accreditation and regulatory compliance.

Please read on for more information about RSI.

• Initiated by the instructor,
• Scheduled and predictable,
• Academic in nature and relevant to the course,
• Ensure regular monitoring of students' academic engagement and success, with appropriate follow-up based on that monitoring, or upon request by the student.
• Include at least TWO of the following methods for substantive interaction:
• Direct instruction (i.e., discussion participation, instructor feedback, synchronous lectures, etc.),
• Provide information or respond to questions about course content,
• Coursework assessment or feedback,
• Facilitate group discussion of the course content,
• Other instructional methods to be approved by the accreditor.

• Pre-recorded video lectures available for students to watch at their own pace, not associated with an assignment, discussion, quiz, etc..
• Missing Instructor Office in your Canvas course, or A missing discussion area in the Instructor Office.
• Auto-graded quiz,
• Students are permitted to complete coursework in a self-paced, independent study format,
• Assignment of recorded webinars, videos, and reading materials if the course design does not require the students to review the assigned material and then interact with the instructor,
• Contact with instructors not related to the course subject matter,
• Adding numeric grades to the course gradebook,
• Posts that remind students about due dates and policies (versus course subject matter),
• An open-ended online forum that is not moderated by the instructor