Regular and Substantive Interaction (RSI)

​​An institution ensures regular interaction between a student and an instructor or instructors by, prior to the student’s completion of a course or competency—​

• Providing the opportunity for substantive interactions with the student on a predictable and scheduled 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.​

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—​

• 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.​

 

Initiated by the instructor 

To count as ‘regular and substantive,’ interactions need to be started by you. This doesn’t mean students should be discouraged from contacting you or asking questions – far from it! But you should expect to take an active part in initiating and guiding a range of interactions with your students throughout the semester. This ensures that interactions are not optional and left up to each student’s individual discretion; rather, they are an integral part of your instructional plan for the course. 

Examples of when RSI is initiated by the instructor:

• You post a discussion question and actively facilitate the ensuing conversation 
• You ask a student to visit you during office hours or to schedule a phone call or videoconference with you 
• You provide personalized comments (in any medium) for an individual student’s assignment 

Examples of when RSI is not initiated by the instructor:

• You add numeric grades to the grade center 
• A student submits a quiz that is automatically graded 

 

Frequent and consistent 

Interactions with students should be reasonably frequent and consistently repeated throughout the semester. This means that once a course begins, long intervals of time shouldn’t pass between the interactions you initiate with students. The mode of interaction may vary throughout the course, depending on your aims and the needs of your students, but the regular cadence of interactions you establish should remain as consistent as possible. Daily communication isn’t required, but at a minimum you should seek to interact with every student at least once each week and you should log in to the course every 1-2 days. 

Examples of frequent and consistent interaction:  

• You routinely post announcement or send messages that you have written specifically for the course 
• You actively facilitate a required online discussion each week 

Example of infrequent and inconsistent interaction:

• You send a welcome message during the first week of class and a mid-semester message around week seven 

 

Focused on the course subject 

Interactions should be connected to the subject of the course and contribute to the students’ progress toward course, program, and college learning objectives. Routine procedural interactions, such as reminders of upcoming deadlines, aren’t ‘substantive’ on their own; neither are activities like assigning grades, unless they are accompanied by personalized feedback or suggestions for improvement. This doesn’t mean that interactions designed to welcome students or build classroom community aren’t important, merely that they aren’t sufficient by themselves. 

Examples of interaction focused on the course subject:

• You send a message previewing concepts introduced in the next unit and listing questions for students to have in mind when reading the textbook chapters 
• You post an example from last night’s baseball game in the course’s ‘Real-World Physics’ discussion to illustrate a concept

Examples of interaction not focused on the course subject:

• You remind students of the course attendance policy 
• You post an announcement about an upcoming assignment deadline 

There are as many ways to promote regular and substantive interaction online as there are approaches to teaching face-to-face courses. The following recommendations are general suggestions for incorporating interaction into your course, but you should freely adapt and personalize them to support course objectives, the needs of your students, and your own teaching goals. 

Set clear expectations for interaction in the syllabus 

The syllabus is a good place to tell your students how you’ll communicate with them as well as how you expect them to communicate with you. Let students know how frequently they can expect to hear from you, when you will or will not be available to respond to messages, and how quickly they can expect a response to questions and to work they submit. If you have participation expectations for your students, be sure to include those as well—especially if they affect students’ grades. 

Send course announcements or other messages at regular intervals throughout the semester

Announcements often focus on procedural information, like reminders of course deadlines, but they can also be used to support instruction. For instance, a weekly announcement can: synthesize and then comment on questions from the previous week; note trends observed in assignments; or highlight, contextualize, or illustrate key concepts students will encounter. Try to establish a general rhythm for course communications, using a pattern that is consistent with the structure or thematic organization of the course. Regardless of their frequency, announcements can be treated as genuine invitations into the subject matter of the course rather than mere reminders. 

Provide timely, individualized, and in-depth feedback on student work 

Research shows instructor feedback is most beneficial when it comes soon after students submit work, so avoid lengthy delays in providing students with comments about their progress. Feedback can take many forms: written comments, audio or video notes, individual conferences conducted in person or via online meeting tools, and so on. In all cases, though, feedback should go beyond simply assigning a grade or automatically displaying pre-written comments or general statements (‘good work’, ‘needs improvement’, etc.). Effective feedback communicates to students both what they have accomplished and areas where they may need to improve. It also often offers examples and concrete suggestions for actions students can take in the future to make further progress in their learning. 

Actively facilitate online discussions 

A common misconception about online discussions is that instructors shouldn’t play an active role in facilitating them. While it’s true that a hands-off approach can be appropriate in some contexts, there are many benefits to facilitated discussions. Consider posting regularly to course discussion forums in order to: pose guiding questions related to the academic subject; propose counterpoints or alternative points of view that students may not be considering; establish connections among students’ ideas; engage in Socratic dialogue; and provide encouragement for students who may be struggling with the complexities of the subject. If the only voices regularly present in discussions are those of students, your course is missing a valuable mode of online instruction.