Abstract
Instructional interactions, which includes student–student interaction (SS), student–teacher interaction (ST), and student–content interaction (SC), are crucial factors affecting the learning outcomes in online education. The current study aims to explore the effects of instructional interactions on individuals’ learning outcomes (i.e., academic performance and learning satisfaction) based on the Interactive Equivalence Theory by conducting two empirical studies. In Study 1, we explored the direct relationships between instructional interactions and learning outcomes. A quasi-experimental design was used to manipulate the two groups of subjects (n1 = 192; n2 = 195), and the results show that not all of the three types of interaction can significantly positively predict learning satisfaction, among which ST cannot significantly predict learning satisfaction. When the total amount of instructional interactions is constant, adjusting the relative level of the three types of instructional interactions can effectively improve the learning outcomes to some extent. We further probed into the mediating effects of task value and self-regulated learning on the relationships between instructional interactions and learning outcomes in Study 2. We conducted an online survey and collected 374 valid data. The results showed that task values mediated the relationship between SS and learning satisfaction. In addition, SC can not only directly affect learning satisfaction, but also affect it through task value and self-regulated learning respectively, or via chain mediations of both task value and self-regulated learning. Our findings enrich the previous instructional interactions research and provide reference for online education curriculum design.
Highlights
The number of online learning users has exploded during the COVID-19 pandemic (Nikou and Maslov, 2021), with face-to-face instruction being replaced by online instruction (Dong et al, 2020; Velle et al, 2020)
Correlation analysis of all variables showed that variables were positively and significantly correlated with each other
The variance inflation factor (VIF) showed that it is greater than and close to 1, which can exclude the problem of multi-collinearity between variables (Field, 2000)
Summary
The number of online learning users has exploded during the COVID-19 pandemic (Nikou and Maslov, 2021), with face-to-face instruction being replaced by online instruction (Dong et al, 2020; Velle et al, 2020). Known as e-learning (Ray et al, 2021) and distance education (Devkota, 2021), is a kind of education pattern which exploits internet and information technology In this educational pattern, mutual interactions, timely communication, independent learning and resource optimization are the exceeding vital teaching organization activities (Xie and Zhang, 2004). There exists inconsistent research conclusions about the direct relationships between instructional interactions and learning outcomes (Thurmond and Wambach, 2004; Bray et al, 2008; Sher, 2009; Kuo et al, 2013). This study intends to explore the optimization design of instructional interactions in online learning environment and the internal mechanisms of the relationships between instructional interactions and learning outcomes
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