Interaction in distance learning pedagogy: the views of tutors and students

Abstract

This study shares the results of a survey that sought to analyze the process of interaction in a Virtual Learning Environment – VLE from the perspective of students and tutors of a distance learning course of Pedagogy offered by a Brazilian public university. Based on a critical paradigm and a qualitative methodology, this article presents a discussion on the role of interaction in distance learning courses, from the viewpoints of students and tutors. The participants concepts of interaction were analyzed from the dialectic and socio-historical perspective, according to which interaction is established in the social relations and mediated by the educator to promote learning. The results suggest that interaction is characterized as a form of communication that occurs especially in the virtual setting and it is strongly unidirectional and little interactional, as it occurs in only one direction, in this case, from students towards tutors as far as schoolwork is concerned. We conclude that both tutors and students need to reframe the concept of interaction, considered in the study as a process of ‘wholeness’. Within the concept of ‘wholeness’, communication occurs so that the Interacting participant is wholly involved in the communication. Their perception of communication is twofold, simultaneous, that is, they see themselves as whole, both in interaction and in the wholeness process. The dialogs in this process occur in a historical, social and dialectical way. Therefore, we support a process that goes beyond interaction, that is, wholeness to promote effective learning in DE – Distance Education.