The purpose of this qualitative case study is to describe the experiences of teachers interacting with students in an online learning environment at Township School District. The theory guiding this study is Moore’s transactional distance theory as it examines how meaningful interactions can minimize the transactional distance in distance learning or remote learning environments. Data from teacher interviews, focus groups, and teacher generated writing samples were used to provide an understanding of how teachers support and promote interactions in online learning environments. Participants were teachers with at least one-year experience teaching remotely or online. All participants were from the same medium sized school district in central Illinois, with a student population of nearly 8,000. This study adds to the literature by sharing high school teachers’ perspectives and experiences of creating and supporting interactions in an online learning environment. The central research question asked, “What are the experiences of high school teachers creating and fostering meaningful interactions in online learning environments?” NVivo coding was utilized to identify codes generated directly from participant responses. The results of the study indicated that teachers created and supported a variety of meaningful interactions. Teachers experienced challenges, adopted new teaching strategies, embraced interactive digital content, and gained a new perspective on students’ home life.

As face-to-face interaction between student and instructor is not present in online learning environments, it is increasingly important to understand how to establish and maintain social presence in online learning. Student-Teacher Interaction in Online Learning Environments provides successful strategies and procedures for developing policies to bring about an awareness of the practices that enhance online learning. This reference book provides building blocks to help improve the outcome of online coursework and discusses social presence to help improve performance, interaction, and a sense of community for all participants in an online arena. This book is of essential use to online educators, administrators, researchers, and students.

"This edited volume offers a platform for exploring how the field of language teaching is adapting to changes that have derived from the pandemic, with a strong focus on the challenges faced and ways to move forward"--

Educators are finding that communication and interaction are at the core of a successful web-based classroom. This interactivity fosters community, which contributes to effective and meaningful learning. Positive online communities and the communication therein encourage students to interact with others’ views which not only grows one’s empathy, but is an integral part of constructivist learning theories. Because of this, the most important role of an educator in an online class is one that ensures student interactivity and engagement. Creating Teacher Immediacy in Online Learning Environments addresses the most effective models and strategies for nurturing teacher immediacy in web-based and virtual learning environments. A number of innovative methods for building an authentic, personalized online learning experience are outlined and discussed at length within this publication, providing solutions for pre-service as well as in-service educators. This book is a valuable compilation of research for course designers, faculty, students of education, administration, software designers, and higher education researchers.

With limited empirical research available on online teaching across cultures especially with Native and Hispanic American students, this book will present the findings of a two-year, Spencer-funded study in creating an inclusive (i.e., multicultural and intergenerational) instructional design model for online learning. The book is expected to provide the readers a field guide of teaching approach (comprising pedagogical, technical, relational and other suggestions for teaching) for inclusive e-learning, with a foundation in the research on how students from different cultures and generation groups learn online. This two-year, multi-course-site study, as a first effort to examine online college teaching and learning effective across culture and age, contributed a list of important findings on the following questions: • To what extent are online learning and interaction experiences and performances consistent across varied ethnic/cultural, and age groups and in what ways do they vary? • What online instructional contexts do students and faculty, especially non-traditional and minority students, identify as supporting learning and student success? • What are the relationships between online instructional contexts, online learning performance, and learning success of students with diverse ethnicity/culture and age background? By consolidating the findings for the aforementioned research questions, the researchers of this study have developed a data-driven online instructional design model that can work as a field guide on cross-cultural and intergenerational teaching and learning for online education practitioners.

Find out how to apply learning science in online classes The concept of small teaching is simple: small and strategic changes have enormous power to improve student learning. Instructors face unique and specific challenges when teaching an online course. This book offers small teaching strategies that will positively impact the online classroom. This book outlines practical and feasible applications of theoretical principles to help your online students learn. It includes current best practices around educational technologies, strategies to build community and collaboration, and minor changes you can make in your online teaching practice, small but impactful adjustments that result in significant learning gains. Explains how you can support your online students Helps your students find success in this non-traditional learning environment Covers online and blended learning Addresses specific challenges that online instructors face in higher education Small Teaching Online presents research-based teaching techniques from an online instructional design expert and the bestselling author of Small Teaching.

From experienced distance educators comes this comprehensive collection of strategies for teaching effectively online. Beginning with pre-instruction preparation and progressing through actual online teaching, 147 Practical Tips for Teaching Online Groups will help you feel more comfortable and competent heading into an online course, whether you're a new instructor or an experienced professor. The authors dispel popular myths in online education and anticipate the potential problems you might face teaching in the online medium. They also advise you on how to set up and implement your online course, and make the course discussions as interactive as those you have in the traditional face-to-face classroom setting. If you're involved in web-based education -- or if you're about to be -- 147 Practical Tips for Teaching Online Groups will become one of your most trusted resources.