L2 3 2

=Institutional policies define requirements that staff support student engagement through a mix of different types of interaction. =

Evidence
Garrison and Cleveland-Innes (2005) state that the purpose of an educational experience is to structure education to achieve defined learning outcomes. They argue that interaction must be structured and systematic. What is required is not merely interaction among participants, but a defined community of inquiry. This is the integration of cognitive, social and teaching presence. Interaction alone is no guarantee that students are cognitively engaged in an educationally meaningful manner.

‘It is important to define clear participation requirements in terms of length, content and timeliness. It is important to provide engaging questions, focus discussion, challenge and test ideas, model appropriate contributions, and ensure that discourse is progressive’ (Garrison & Cleveland-Innes 2005, p. 145). This applies to all communication modes employed in the course.

Resources
Many universities have guidelines for staff responsiveness to emails, and sometimes templates for responsiveness policies can be found, e.g.:

http://depts.washington.edu/cidrweb/planning/develop.html

However, policies should cover all communication modes not merely email. Additionally, it is not just responsiveness that needs to be addressed. Ways to identify students that are not participating have been discussed (see L2.5.1 for example) and staff need to provide support and encouragement to such students. It is possible that due to student diversity (see L10) not all students will engage with all learning activities and so a mix of different types of interaction may be required.

The number of online interactions needs to be kept relatively high in discussions and some dramatic tension should be created to motivate participation (Wilson & Whitelock 1998).