A collaborative piece by staff from the Office of Curriculum and Instructional Support
Regular and Substantive Interaction, or RSI, is a defining feature of distance education that distinguishes it from correspondence courses and programs. Faculty and student interactions are a hallmark of effective teaching. If online courses and programs (synchronous and asynchronous) lack RSI, the U.S. Department of Education may deem those courses ineligible for federal financial aid, which could negatively impact students as well as the university (Online Learning Consortium, 2019; Pina & Martindale, 2023). In this post, we cover the basics of RSI, discuss the implications of RSI for student success, provide some examples of RSI, and share how the Office of Curriculum and Instructional Support (CIS) can help you.
The basics of RSI
The U.S. Department of Education’s definition and corresponding rules for distance education and RSI went into effect on July 1, 2021. For distance education interactions to count as RSI, whether the offering is asynchronous, synchronous, blended/hybrid, they need to meet the following three characteristics:
- Instructor-initiated
- Occur on a regular and predictable basis
- Substantive, in that the interaction pertains directly to the course content and enhances the student’s learning experience
The first characteristic, instructor-initiated, is relatively straightforward. Simply put, interactions initiated by students do not meet the requirements of RSI (U.S. Department of Education, 2020). The requirements for the regular and substantive characteristics of RSI warrant further detail.
Regular interaction
The U.S. Department of Education (2020) stipulates how a university ensures the “regular interaction” characteristic of RSI as follows:
An institution ensures regular interaction between a student and an instructor or instructors prior to the student’s completion of a course or competency:
(i) Providing the opportunity for substantive interactions with the student on a predictable and scheduled basis commensurate with the length of time and the amount of content in the course or competency; and
(ii) Monitoring the student’s academic engagement and success and ensuring that an instructor is responsible for promptly and proactively engaging in substantive interaction with the student when needed on the basis of such monitoring, or upon request by the student. (p. 54809)
The “regular interaction” portion of RSI is met “if the institution provides opportunities for interaction, even if each student does not take advantage of every opportunity” (U.S. Department of Education, 2020, p. 54789). For example, a professor who has regularly scheduled virtual office hours meets the requirement for regular interaction, even if students choose not to take advantage of them.
The Department of Education (2020) does not require “a specific timeframe, sequence, or frequency that the activities need to occur within that timeframe” (p. 54759). Nor does it expect universities to monitor and document every occurrence of RSI. Instead, it expects an institution “to maintain academic policies or procedures that create expectations for faculty to substantively interact with students on a predictable and scheduled basis and to monitor each student’s engagement and success and follow up with the student as needed” (p. 54759). A professor checking a student’s activity within the Blackboard course or evaluating a student’s understanding of course content are examples of such monitoring. Critical to effective monitoring is faculty proactively identifying and aiding students in need.
Substantive interaction
The U.S. Department of Education (2020) defines substantive interaction as follows:
Substantive interaction is engaging students in teaching, learning, and assessment, consistent with the content under discussion, and also includes at least two of the following:
(i) Providing direct instruction;
(ii) Assessing or providing feedback on a student’s coursework;
(iii) Providing information or responding to questions about the content of a course or competency;
(iv) Facilitating a group discussion regarding the content of a course or competency; or
(v) Other instructional activities approved by the institution’s or program’s accrediting agency. (p. 54809)
By “direct instruction,” in item (i), the Department means “live, synchronous instruction where both the instructor and the student are online and in communication at the same time” (Kerensky, 2022).
Examples of RSI
In many ways, RSI begins even before the course starts. You can help ensure interactions are regular and substantive by integrating them into your course design. Clearly convey expectations for course interactions, both for students and yourself, through the syllabus and class schedule. With that in mind, the following are examples of RSI:
- Personalized feedback on student assignments
- Actively and regularly facilitate online discussions
- Hold regular virtual office hours
- Regularly send announcements or course messages that help facilitate students’ learning and development, as opposed to only conveying procedural information (e.g., due dates)
Before moving on, it is important to note that according to the U.S. Department of Education (2020), “Interactions with artificial intelligence, adaptive learning systems, or other forms of interactive computer-assisted instructional tools qualify as types of ‘academic engagement,’ but in this limited context those forms of engagement do not meet the statutory requirements for regular and substantive interaction between students and instructors” (p. 54762). This is because, in this scenario, the student is interacting with technology, not with their instructor.
Student success
At the beginning, we discussed the financial ramifications of not integrating RSI throughout distance education courses and programs. Just as important, if not even more so, are the implications for student success. Not all students can take in-person courses. Many life circumstances make distance education the only feasible option for some learners. For example, a student’s work schedule may preclude them from attending in-person classes. As educators and as a university, it is important for us to ensure that students enrolled in distance education have a robust, supportive, engaging, and interactive learning experience just as the in-person students do. Through RSI, faculty can foster educator-to-student interactions that are comparable to those traditionally experienced in an in-person setting.
High-quality interactions between faculty and students are a hallmark of effective teaching. They convey to students, the educator’s, and the institution’s, commitment to them and their success (National Survey of Student Engagement, 2022). Instructor-student interactions also contribute to student satisfaction and persistence (Croxton, 2014). The absence of such vital interactions can have the opposite effect. Students even have a label for faculty who have little to no substantive interaction online: Ghost Professor (Guzman-Lopez, 2021). As one student described, “They’re not teaching, you don’t see them, they don’t do Zoom, they don’t have office hours” (Guzman-Lopez, 2021).
It is important to not rush to judgement of so-called ghost professors. Not all faculty know how to infuse regular and substantive interaction throughout their distance education offerings. This is understandable, given the differences between teaching in-person compared to online. The good news is that the Office of Curriculum and Instructional Support is here to support you with RSI.
CIS is here to help
CIS is here to help you with RSI. We offer a variety of services to support faculty. These include but are not limited to one-on-one consultations, Blackboard course and syllabi reviews, and assistance with Blackboard functionality and multimedia. All of which can help you with ensuring RSI within your distance education offerings. For example, a review of your Blackboard course and your syllabus can provide valuable insights into how clearly you are communicating with students, the schedule and predictableness of interactions, and offer suggestions as to how you can enhance RSI. We can also discuss innovative ways of incorporating RSI into your courses utilizing various technologies and their built-in functionality. Stop by anytime or schedule an appointment to speak with one of our staff.
Want to learn more about RSI? Join us on Thursday, January 23rd, for “Meaningful and Consistent Engagement: Ensuring Regular and Substantive Interaction (RSI) in your Online Course.” These sessions will discuss the RSI requirements and provide examples of teaching practices that incorporate RSI. See CIS Events for times and to register.
References
Croxton, R. A. (2014). The role of interactivity in student satisfaction and persistence in online learning. Journal of online learning and teaching, 10(2), 314.
Kerensky, K. (2022, November 8). Regular and Substantive Interaction Update: Where Do We Go from Here? WCET. https://wcet.wiche.edu/frontiers/2022/11/08/regular-substantive-interaction-update-where-do-we-go/
Guzman-Lopez, A. (2021). College Students Ask: What’s Up With My “Ghost Professor?”. LAist. https://laist.com/news/education/college-students-ask-whats-up-with-my-ghost-professor
National Survey of Student Engagement. (2022). Engagement insights: Survey findings on the quality of undergraduate education– Annual results 2021. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research.
Online Learning Consortium. (2019). Regular and substantive interaction: Background, concerns, and guiding principles. Online Learning Consortium.
Pina, A. A., & Martindale, T. (2023). Regular and Substantive Interaction in Online Courses: Why it Matters for Administrators. Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, 26(2).
U.S. Department of Education. (2020). Distance education and innovation: Final regulations. Federal Register, 85(171), 54742-54772. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2020-09-02/pdf/2020-18636.pdf