Indulging interactivity: a learning management system as a facilitative boundary object

Abstract

With the recent global pandemic, education institutions including higher education have shifted to offering online instruction for a prolonged period of time. Faculty and instructors have had to transform the content of face-to-face instruction into a format fit for distance education. In the virtual space, understanding or facilitating interactivity is a key component of online teaching for sustaining engagement and social interactions; promoting active learning between participants; and providing resources, tasks, and activities. The learning management system as a facilitative boundary object makes pivoting to online classes more tactical when adopting cultural-historical activity theory as an analytical lens, which can be used as a guide to re-envision how interactions can be implemented in e-learning or online courses and how instructors can repurpose resources and tools to maximize their instructional practices. Examples of interactivity and the implications for practitioners are synthesized, and the multiple components at play in the online and hybrid space are characterized in order to promote the exchange of practices and knowledge mobilization.

Activating and Engaging Students in Online Asynchronous Classes

“…A survey conducted at Missouri S&T revealed that the main complaint expressed by students, after switching to the online settings, was the lack of interactions either between instructors and students or between students themselves. These findings align with other reported studies [1] on the impact of the recent pandemic on students' learning experiences. During the rapid transition from in-person courses to the online format, many instructors had to eliminate previously designed in-class activities that were proven to be effective in engaging students in class [2][3][4]; others had to adapt activities based on the limitations imposed by the available learning management systems (LMS).…”

“…Interactions occur when these objects and events mutually influence one another". Chang [1] mentioned that an instructor's approach to instructional interactivity has important implications for online teaching. Furthermore, Bickle et.al.…”

Untitled

“…Other studies into IT systems and platforms which support online assessment refer to the importance of features such as assessment Drop Boxes which assist in submitting and tracking assignments, systems which allow students to run their work through Turn-it-in to pick up and rectify unintentional instances of plagiarism prior to final submission and a range of feedback features such as Chat, and synchronous and asynchronous audio and video feedback (Chang & Kuo, 2022;Majid, 2020).…”

Didactic Principles of Modeling Virtual Learning Environments: the Analysis of Theoretical and Empirical Value

“…For example, as indicated by Yonghe and Lei (2022), the traditional principle of sustainability of knowledge acquisition should be implemented in any model of distance learning considering the impact of the WEB 2.0 environment on the process of sustainable knowledge acquisition. Another approach is detected in studies by Chang and Kuo (2021), Hamilton et al (2020), and others where the researchers describe the didactic principles primarily on the basis of innovative ICTs, evaluating the features according to their didactic potential. For example, Jensen and Konradsen (2018) explore the immersive learning principle on the example of using head-mounted displays for improving cognitive skills acquisition process.…”