Correspondence VS. Distance Education/Online Teaching

Correspondence is a course provided by an institution under which the institution provides instructional materials, by mail or electronic transmission, including examinations on the materials, to students who are separated from the instructor. Interaction between the instructor and student is limited, is not regular and substantive, and is primarily initiated by the student. Correspondence courses are typically self-paced.

Examples

Graded assignments without Feedback
Weekly Announcements with Due Dates
Video Lectures
Auto-Graded Quizzes

Distance Education/Online Teaching examples:

Graded Assignments with Feedback
Weekly Announcements Explaining Content
Video Lectures with Discussions
Instructor-Initiated Discussions
Office House
Assessments with Instructor Feedback

RSI Distilled

For interactions to be considered RSI, they need to meet the following characteristics:

They should be mostly instructor-initiated
They need to be regular, scheduled and predictable
They must be substantive, i.e. focused on the course subject

...Revisiting the Definitions

Regular interaction requires an institution to ensure, “before the student completes a course or competency,” that there is “the opportunity for substantive interactions with the student on a predictable and scheduled basis commensurate with the length of time and the amount of content in the course or competency.” The institution also is responsible for monitoring the student’s academic engagement and success and ensuring that an instructor is responsible for promptly and proactively engaging in substantive interaction with the student when needed based on such monitoring or upon request by the student.

Substantive interaction is engaging students in teaching, learning, and assessment, consistent with the content under discussion.

Regular & Substantive Interaction must include at least two of five components:

Provide direct instruction
Assess or provide feedback on a student’s coursework
Providing information or responding to questions about the content of a course or competency
Facilitating a group discussion regarding the content of a course or competency
Employing other instructional activities

Instructor-initiated

This criterion states that the interaction must be mostly faculty-driven. This does not include interaction that is optional or initiated primarily by the student.

Examples

Individualized emails.
Personalized feedback on assignments.
Instructor-facilitated discussion forums.
Scheduled virtual office hours.

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"Regular" and frequent (based on your Syllabus)

Interaction between students and the instructor is regular (at least once weekly), and interaction is of an academic nature. As explained in its definition, the interaction should occur with reasonable frequency considering the length of time the course is run.

Examples

Weekly course announcements
Weekly summaries or highlights of discussion posts
Regularly schedule online reviews or help sessions
Office hours at a recurring time each week

Substantive - of an academic nature

This means students are engaged through teaching, learning, and assessment. In addition, the course must involve at least two of the following four activities:

Provide direct instruction.
- This does not include micro-lectures or recorded meetings.
Assess or provide feedback on a student’s coursework.
- Limited feedback such as posting "good job" or just entering a numerical grade does not qualify as substantive.
- Feedback should be meaningful, both when a student is doing well and in areas where they could improve.
Provide information or responding to questions about the content course or competency.
Facilitate a group discussion regarding the content of a course or competency.

Interactions should be connected to the subject of the course and contribute to the students’ progress toward course, program, and university learning objectives.

Routine procedural interactions, such as reminders of upcoming deadlines or activities like assigning grades are not ‘substantive’ on their own unless they are accompanied by personalized feedback or suggestions for improvement. This does not mean that interactions designed to welcome students or build classroom community are not important, merely that they are not sufficient by themselves.

Examples

Announcements previewing or reviewing difficult content
Emails previewing concepts introduced in the next unit
Listing questions for students to have in mind when reading the textbook chapters

Attributions

"REGULAR & SUBSTANTIVE INTERACTION" by SUNY is licensed under CC BY 4.0

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (n.d.). Regular and Substantive Interaction (RSI) in Online Learning. Center for Online Learning and Teaching Technology. Retrieved April 3, 2024, from https://www.utrgv.edu/online/teaching-online/process/regular-substantive-interaction/index.htm#:~:text=Regular%20interaction%20requires%20an%20institution,the%20course%20or%20competency.%E2%80%9D%20The