Abstract
Interactive learning is vital to schooled learning because it encourages and enables the exploration and application of knowledge. The difficulty of providing for this learning-based interaction among students who never meet in person has been a continuing concern in online education. This paper describes six different interactive structures (whole group discussions, break-out groups, show-and-tell, independent small groups, online conferences, and virtual poster sessions) developed to allow students in online courses to interact virtually face-to-face using free video conferencing programs and discusses the advantages and disadvantages of each. Student response to these video conferencing structures in 18 fully online classes was overwhelmingly positive, based on data from anonymous end-of-course evaluations. Student comments emphasized increased engagement and enjoyment from being able to see and talk with each other in both large and small groups, and the value of the relationships and learning community they believed such interaction fostered.
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