DoE Requires Regular and Substantive Interaction (RSI) in Online Courses. What is it?
Online courses have become increasingly popular in recent years, as they offer a convenient and flexible way for students to continue their education. However, one of the biggest challenges in online education is maintaining regular and substantive interaction between students and instructors. New federal US Department of Education (DoE) regulatory definitions of distance education require that institutions ensure regular and substantive interaction (RSI) between a student and an instructor(s).
Regular interaction refers to the frequency of communication between students and instructors, such as through discussion forums, email, or video conferencing. Substantive interaction refers to the quality and depth of the communication, such as the exchange of ideas and feedback.
RSI compliance is the legal federal requirement that distinguishes the status of courses between distance education and correspondence courses. Correspondence courses are not eligible for financial aid. Institutions risk losing access to student financial aid if the institution is audited by the US Department of Education’s (DoE) Office of Inspector General, or as part of a periodic Departmental financial aid program review, and found to be out of compliance. Institutions may be required to repay financial aid associated with the correspondence courses and students (SUNY Online).
Aside from that, one of the key benefits of regular and substantive interaction is that it helps to keep students engaged and motivated in the course. When students feel that they are part of a community and have regular opportunities to interact with their instructors and peers, they are more likely to stay on track and complete the course.
Instructors can promote regular and substantive interaction by providing opportunities for students to collaborate on projects, participate in online discussions, and give and receive feedback. For example, online discussion forums can be a great way for students to share their ideas and get feedback from their peers, while video conferencing can be used for virtual office hours or to hold interactive lectures.
Another way to promote regular and substantive interaction is to use technology tools like Learning Management System (LMS) or collaboration tools like Zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams. These tools can help to create a sense of community and facilitate regular communication between students and instructors.
Regular and substantive interaction is not only beneficial for students, but also for instructors. By interacting with students on a regular basis, instructors can get a sense of how well students are understanding the material and adjust their teaching accordingly. Additionally, instructors can provide feedback to students on their work and help them to improve.
In summary, regular and substantive interaction is essential for the success of online courses. By providing opportunities for students to interact with their instructors and peers, online education can be just as effective as traditional classroom-based instruction.
The below graphic from OSCQR – SUNY Online Course Quality Review Rubric is a great representation of where regular and substantive interaction stands between correspondence education and distance education.
Mini-Bytes. Try Before You Buy
Photo: Great Falls College MSU
I learned about an interesting way to increase student online enrollment from the eLearning team at Great Falls College Montana State University today at the ITC eLearning conference in Tucson. They discussed how students are often reluctant to sign up for online courses because they’ve never done so before and don’t know what to expect. That coupled with the fact that some students sign up for online courses and are not properly prepared to be successful in the online environment. The eLearning departments solution was the creation of Mini-Bytes. “A Mini-Byte class is a free 2-week sample of an online course. Instructors that teach the full 16-week watch over the courses and interact with the students who can sign up at any time.” Students get to try before they buy. That’s a great idea.
I think that if students could actually see what the expectations are for an online class and experience the look and feel of a course, they would have a better idea of what the online class will be like. They can then make an informed decision about whether online is a right fit.
However, many times great ideas get mired in red tape. How could GCC or Maricopa capitalize on an idea like this? First, we would have to get past the whole registration aspect. With our no late registration mandate, this is not possible. Strike one. Next, we would need to get faculty who teach online to be willing to open a 2-week portion of their online course and allow for open enrollment. Canvas permits this easily; however, the idea of having a random group of students in a 2 week course that faculty would be responsible for engaging with is not easy. Faculty working for free? Strike two. If the numbers were small, it might be possible to persuade a few. But would there be a broad enough spectrum of courses available for students to taste?
Another problem I foresee would be course consistency. As the former eCourses faculty lead for GCC, I know first hand how challenging it is to get all departments on board with a consistent look and feel for online courses even though we subscribe to Quality Matters. I would imagine taking an online English course would be much different from taking an online math class. Although maybe that is not the purpose of the mini-bytes. Maybe they are course specific which makes sense. Therefore, we would need to ensure that department online courses have a consistent look and feel. I know in English that is what we strive for, but it can be a challenge.
Overall, I like this mini-bytes concept and clearly one college, Great Falls College, has made this work for them. I guess I will implementing innovative ideas in Maricopa were easier.
Improving Retention in Online Courses Takes Work, But Do Retention Techniques Help?
I’ve been teaching online now for 18 years. Makes me sound old, especially since so many instructors are brand new to teaching online. Well times have changed, students have changed, and the technology we use to teach online has changed too, not all for the better. What I mean by that is students have different expectations of what online learning is and most mistakenly believe online courses will be easier for them to complete. As an online instructor, this is often difficult to deal with especially if you’re set on improving retention in your courses. Over the years I’ve developed some pretty standard processes to help with this, but more so lately I’ve found that those strategies are reaching directly to the student and not necessarily the course design. However, I’ll preview a few of each in this post.
First, students need to be aware of what the expectations are for the online course up front and preferably before the course begins. This way students will have an opportunity to learn what is expected and make a wise decision to continue on or drop and add an on-ground course. As a policy for our English department online courses, we open the courses 3-7 days before the start date. We also send a welcome letter to students outlining the expectations of the course, which generally discusses expected study time each week and advice on what it takes to be successful in the online course. Here is an example letter here. I’ve had a few students opt out of the class after reading the letter and taking a look around the online course.
Another retention technique is to include an orientation in the first week of your course. The orientation will give students early on a taste of many of the kinds of tasks they will be assigned to do throughout the course. Having them experience these things early on with low stakes makes doing these tasks later on much easier. It also ensures the instructor that all students know how to do what is expected when it’s time to do them. I require students to complete the orientation within the first five days of the course in order to remain enrolled in the course. If they don’t complete it, they are dropped as a No Show and get a full refund.
The orientation includes things like Read more
