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For many of us, “online learning” was a phrase we thought very differently about six months ago.

Sure, we had seen some colleges pioneer the availability of online degree programmes, but for the vast majority of universities in-person classes were essential. What’s more, online learning very likely wasn’t something we would ever associate with young children in primary schools.

Now, with so many of us or our loved ones affected by continued school closures, questions about the effectiveness of virtual education have suddenly become much more relevant.

Thankfully, scholars and education professionals have been researching this topic for years, and have some interesting insights. We’ve put together some of the highlights for you or anyone you know who might be wondering — can online learning actually replace traditional education?

What is it that makes in-person education so difficult to replicate?

As any teacher will tell you, there’s so much more going on in a classroom than just students copying down what the teacher says or writes on the whiteboard. Take something as simple as having students work on an assignment. Imagine a teacher wants to have their students collaborate on a worksheet. The teacher splits them into groups of three, and the students talk together and share ideas as they try to puzzle out the problems.

The teacher walks around, checking on each group, answering questions and giving a little direction here and there if necessary. After twenty minutes, the teacher asks for a volunteer from each group to come to the front of the room and present to the class.

In just one, quick assignment in a classroom, so much is going on. Education experts have used the term “interpersonal interaction” to encompass all of these little, sometimes seemingly insignificant conversations and exchanges that take place throughout the day in a classroom. Students are surrounded by other people who are there for the same purpose. They talk with each other, and work toward a common goal. They engage with the teacher.

A lot is said, but even more is also conveyed through body language — a stern glance from the teacher makes a student reconsider throwing that paper airplane, or a student’s lost gaze into space suggests to the teacher that this one might need a little help with the assignment.

Turning to online learning, we might be tempted to just give up on some of these interactions. After all, it makes sense to just focus on the student interacting with the content, right? Actually, research has found that all of these forms of interpersonal interaction significantly affect student learning, performance, and satisfaction in online learning.

Interpersonal interaction in online environments has been associated with increased perceived learning, higher levels of student satisfaction with the course, higher levels of faculty satisfaction with the course, and improved student academic achievement.

Conversations that are sparked so easily in physical classrooms often prove much more challenging to create in an online environment. One common solution is the discussion board. Often, student engagement is measured quantitatively, by the number of posts. Students are required to post, say, five times over the course of the week, perhaps in response to specific prompts about the material.

While well-intentioned, this tactic can backfire. According to researchers, when opportunities for interaction increase in quantity, this does not necessarily correspond to increased quality of interaction in the course. One type of interaction may be far more valuable to students than another.

To try and better understand which forms of interaction are most valuable, some experts have proposed a framework called “purposeful interpersonal interaction,” or PII. Rather than counting the number of posts a student makes on a discussion board as a measure of effectiveness, the idea is to view interpersonal interactions through a much more qualitative lens.

When thinking about interpersonal interactions in the online learning context, instructional interactions probably come to mind first. The teacher talks to students about the learning material or clarifies a concept. However, this is only one of three types of interaction that are connected to key student outcomes like perceived learning, satisfaction, and academic achievement.

Students also benefit from purposeful social interaction and supportive interaction. All of these interactions are important to creating a sense of social presence, even though students cannot be physically present with each other. With this in mind, we can turn our focus to new, creative methods to foster the same quality of interaction that students would ordinarily get in person. — Worldreader.org