{"id":6932,"date":"2025-01-03T11:53:16","date_gmt":"2025-01-03T16:53:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/itds\/?page_id=6932"},"modified":"2025-01-23T14:59:56","modified_gmt":"2025-01-23T19:59:56","slug":"regular-substantive-interaction","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/itds\/instructional-design\/regular-substantive-interaction\/","title":{"rendered":"Regular Substantive Interaction"},"content":{"rendered":"

When teaching online, it is important to ensure a high-quality learning experience for students by offering Regular Substantive Interaction, often abbreviated as RSI. Regardless of whether your online course is being offered synchronously or asynchronously, the US Department of Education has established federal guidelines to measure instructor presence in online courses. These requirements serve as a standard to regulate online education to ensure distance learning is engaging, effective, and comparable in quality to traditional in person instruction. Institutions will often rely on this metric during accreditation processes to measure and evaluate the means in which an instructor is engaging with their students.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It’s important to note that these guidelines draw distinctions between <\/span>Correspondence Education<\/strong> (i.e. Coursera courses relying on self-graded quizzes and self-paced content) and <\/span>Distance\/Online Education<\/strong> (i.e. instructor-facilitated discussions, office hours, assignment feedback).<\/span><\/p>\n

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While online courses at Montclair will possess qualities of both correspondence<\/span> and<\/span><\/em> distance education, it is important to ensure student engagement through regular substantive interaction. Doing so benefits both students and faculty alike, creating more engaging learning experiences for students while adhering to federal guidelines which risk financial aid distribution if determined to be out of compliance.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Learn More: Read the Full Definition of Regular Substantive Interaction<\/div>
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34 C.F.R. \u00a7600.2 defines a correspondence course as: 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

Distance education is defined in 34 C.F.R. \u00a7600.2 as1. Education that uses technology to deliver instruction to students who are separated from the instructor and to support regular and substantive interaction between the students and the instructor, either synchronously or asynchronously. For purposes of this definition, substantive interaction is engaging students in teaching, learning, and assessment, consistent with the content under discussion, and also includes at least two of the following\u2014 i. Providing direct instruction; ii. Assessing or providing feedback on a student\u2019s coursework; iii. Providing information or responding to questions about the content of a course or competency; iv. Facilitating a group discussion regarding the content of a course or competency; or v. Other instructional activities approved by the institution\u2019s or program\u2019s accrediting agency.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Source: Pursuing Regulatory Compliance for Digital Instruction in Response to Covid-19: Policy Playbook, WCET<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

Providing Regular Substantive Interaction in Your Course<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Consider the following strategies to satisfy RSI federal guidelines while engaging your students in synchronous and asynchronous online courses.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Elevate Instructor Presence<\/h2>\n
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When teaching online, you will need to be intentional about appearing active and present in courses. Students may not see the hours an instructor pours into the course design process or monitoring course activity behind a screen. Students want to feel a connection with their instructors, and this connection has an impact on student learning experience and outcomes.<\/p>\n