{"id":1114,"date":"2026-04-02T15:45:35","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T15:45:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eccser.org\/seamypath\/?p=1114"},"modified":"2026-04-02T15:45:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T15:45:35","slug":"regular-vs-substantive-interaction-in-online-courses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eccser.org\/seamypath\/2026\/04\/02\/regular-vs-substantive-interaction-in-online-courses\/","title":{"rendered":"Regular vs. Substantive Interaction in Online Courses"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table is-style-stripes\"><table class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><thead><tr><th>Dimension<\/th><th><strong>Regular Interaction<\/strong><\/th><th><strong>Substantive Interaction<\/strong><\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td><strong>Primary Purpose<\/strong><\/td><td>Maintain instructor presence, communication, and course structure<\/td><td>Advance student learning through teaching, guidance, and feedback<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Instructional Focus<\/strong><\/td><td>Course organization, pacing, expectations, and student support<\/td><td>Content understanding, skill development, and disciplinary thinking<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Interaction Scope<\/strong><\/td><td>Often course-wide or engagement-based<\/td><td>May be individualized, activity-based, or content-focused<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Trigger for Interaction<\/strong><\/td><td>Instructor presence, engagement monitoring, or course communication<\/td><td>Instructional needs related to course content or student work<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Role of Instructor<\/strong><\/td><td>Maintains visibility, communicates expectations, and supports engagement<\/td><td>Teaches, clarifies concepts, provides feedback, and guides learning<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Connection to Student Work<\/strong><\/td><td>Not evaluative; does not assess academic reasoning or performance<\/td><td>Directly engages with student ideas, reasoning, or academic performance<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Typical Examples<\/strong><\/td><td>Weekly announcements, pacing reminders, outreach to disengaged students, course updates<\/td><td>Feedback on assignments, discussion facilitation, clarifying misconceptions, mini-lessons, guided questioning<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Equity Function<\/strong><\/td><td>Reduces isolation and ensures predictable instructor presence<\/td><td>Supports learning through explanation, feedback, and instructional guidance<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dimension Regular Interaction Substantive Interaction Primary Purpose Maintain instructor presence, communication, and course structure Advance student learning through teaching, guidance, and feedback Instructional Focus Course organization, pacing, expectations, and student support Content understanding, skill development, and disciplinary thinking Interaction Scope Often course-wide or engagement-based May be individualized, activity-based, or content-focused Trigger for Interaction Instructor presence, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rsi"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eccser.org\/seamypath\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eccser.org\/seamypath\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eccser.org\/seamypath\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eccser.org\/seamypath\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eccser.org\/seamypath\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1114"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eccser.org\/seamypath\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1116,"href":"https:\/\/eccser.org\/seamypath\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1114\/revisions\/1116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eccser.org\/seamypath\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eccser.org\/seamypath\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eccser.org\/seamypath\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}