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=Courses provide a variety of mechanisms for interaction between staff and students. =

Evidence
A common criticism of e-learning is the isolation students suffer from and the need to provide effective communication channels. Interaction is key to effective learning, particularly when not engaged in face to face teaching (Anderson, 2003). In a meta-analysis Bernard et al. (2009) compared distance education courses with each other and have found that designing ITs into distance learning courses to enhance student-teacher, student-content and student-student interaction positively influences learning outcomes.

Varying interaction can have effects on style of learning, attrition rates (Muilenburg & Berge 2001), course satisfaction and learning (Allen et al. 2006), workload perception and educational outcome.

The successful creation of an online staff persona will ease the possibility of an increase in the class attrition rate (Smith, Ferguson & Caris, 2002, p. 65).

A variety of mechanisms for staff and student interaction are possible. Moore (1989) defines three types of interaction: learner-content, learner-instructor and, learner-learner. There is also a learner-interface type (Hillman et al., 1994); and a learner-environment type (Woods and Baker, 2004).

These mechanisms can be synchronous or asynchronous in the nature of interaction (Johnson 2006) and facilitate transactional or interactional communication (Woods and Baker 2004). Both Wang and Newlin (2001) and McInnerney and Roberts (2004) advocate mixed use of asynchronus and synchronous communication channels. This seems reasonable as although Ahern & El Hindi (2000) found that asynchronous discourse mimicked the dynamics of real-time discussions and Davidson-Shivers et al. (2000) found that delayed responses were more focused and purposeful, Johnson (2006) found that, ‘case study evaluations suggest potential learning benefits associated with synchronous online discussion’ (p. 51).

Collaborative approaches to interaction are argued to encourage deep learning, which is generally seen as desirable (Garrison and Cleveland-Innes, 2005; Muirhead, 2004; Ng and Murphy, 2005; Picciano, 2002). Garrison and Anderson (2003) identify ‘reflective and collaborative properties of asynchronous, text-based online learning [as] well adapted to deep approaches to learning’ (p. 145).

Kember & Leung (2006) demonstrate that good teacher-student relationships can positively influence perceptions of workload.

The literature on teacher immediacy shows that high levels of teacher immediacy function as a means of increasing the motivation of a student to learn, and that such motivation increases the cognitive mastery of material (Allen et al. 2006). Mehrabian (1969, 1981) viewed immediacy as a set of behaviors creating a perception of physical or psychological closeness between communicators. (Robinson, R. & Whitemarsh, D. (2009) argue that immediacy can be transferred from traditional classrooms to hybrid and online courses.

Good staff-student interactions and a sense of teacher immediacy increase the willingness of students to approach and engage in educational tasks. This is critical to the learning process. (Allen et al. 2006).

Resources
Jane Hart (2009, http://www.slideshare.net/janehart/top-100-tools-for-learning-2009-2509241 ) has compiled a list of the top 100 tools for learning as voted by 278 learning professionals from around the world. The top five are: Twitter, Delicious, YouTube, Google Reader and Google Docs. These can all be innovative ways to establish communication channels with students.

As noted in the literature review, establishing a social network and supportive atmosphere are critical for motivating participants to play an active role in synchronous interaction (Burnett, 2003). Finkelstein (2006) also notes that socialization and informal exchanges are very important for the learning process in synchronous online learning environments, as "they help build community and create a friendly and safe environment in which people can feel like people" (p. 4). (in Ng 2007)