Interactions in Online Education: Implications for Theory and Practice

摘要

The online education discourse has been flowing for sometime-at times raging, at others trickling. Lately it has been a flood. If a university wants to attract students from the immense pool of people who insist that the world flex around the demands of their busy lives, said university had better have a strong online program. Not to reduce the matter to the filthy lucre, but the economics of higher education are demanding attention to online education. As a result, serious research is blossoming. So what does Charles Juwah offer to improve the state of online education? The typical study of online education starts wide and expands from there, trying to take in every aspect of the massive field. Juwah instead focuses on a single vital principle: "Interactivity and interactions," he writes, "have been identified by research as the key success factors underpinning the pedagogy of online education (e-learn-ing)" (1).