Regular and Substantive Interaction

New U.S. Department of Education regulations went into effect on July 1, 2021 to distinguish distance education from correspondence courses, which have financial aid restrictions. The main difference between these two modalities is that a distance education course requires regular and substantive interaction between the instructor and the students. This tip sheet defines regular and substantive interaction and provides tips for how to improve teacher-student interaction in your distance education course.

What is Regular and Substantive Interaction (RSI)?

The U.S. Department of Education describes regular interaction as occurring “on a predictable and scheduled basis commensurate with the length of time and the amount of content in the course or competency.”

It defines substantive interaction as “engaging students in teaching, learning, and assessment, consistent with the content under discussion.” At least two of the following criteria must also be present for interaction to be considered substantive:

  1. Providing direct instruction;
  2. Assessing or providing feedback on a student’s coursework;
  3. Providing information or responding to questions about the content of a course or competency;
  4. Facilitating a group discussion regarding the content of a course or competency; or
  5. Other instructional activities approved by the institution’s or program’s accrediting agency.

Main takeaway: Instructors should initiate predictable and scheduled interaction with their students; this interaction should be relevant to the course and involve teaching and assessment.

Strategies for Providing RSI in an Online Course

This section outlines some specific instructional strategies that you can add to your course to ensure that you are providing regular and substantive interaction in your online course.

Providing predictable and scheduled interaction:

  • Use the announcements forum to post weekly announcements that provide an overview of that week’s content, confirm due dates, and point students to important considerations and helpful resources.
  • Record captioned overview videos for each week or unit to provide context for content and explain relevance to what has already been covered.
  • Add forum discussions for each week or unit to encourage regular interaction and engagement.
  • Offer office hours on a set schedule in a set location (i.e.: Zoom), allowing students to drop-in as needed.

Providing direct instruction:

  • Record short, captioned video lectures exploring unit content.
  • Select relevant and current textbooks and materials that match the student learning outcomes for the course.
  • Include information and resources from diverse sources and perspectives.
  • Summarize forum discussions or unit content.

Assessing or providing feedback on a student’s coursework:

  • Use rubrics integrated into LMS for assignments and forums to make grading faster and more efficient.
  • Make rubrics available to students before they complete the assignment to provide guidance.
  • Align criteria in rubrics with student learning outcomes.
  • Include some authentic assessments that ask students to relate content to personal experience and have real-world applications.
  • Provide feedback within a reasonable timeframe and throughout the entirety of the course.

Providing information or responding to questions about the content of a course or competency:

  • Include a course introduction section with a welcome video and course syllabus that explains grading policies and criteria. Include tips on navigating course in the welcome video.
  • Provide communication guidelines including instructor contact information, expectations for communication, and netiquette guidelines.
  • Add a forum where students can ask general questions about the course such as assignment deadlines or clarification and problems with LMS (e.g. links not working or topics not opening); check this forum regularly.

Facilitating a group discussion regarding the content of a course or competency:

  • Initiate regular forum discussions to give students opportunities to engage with content and peers.
  • Use open-ended questions to encourage critical thinking, different perspectives, and unique interpretations.
  • Actively participate in forum discussions that ask students to examine course materials and to relate course content to personal experiences or current events

References and Resources

If you want help creating a more interactive online course, please contact the UM Instructional Design Team.

Support is available Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (Mountain Standard Time).