Online interactivity: best practice based on two case studies

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to identify and explore best practice in the effective support of online interactivity. Five key issues related to best practice are delineated, based on the experience derived from two case studies. The first case study involved online, collaborative work carried out by twenty-six conversion M.Sc. students following a module on‘Interactive Multimedia Systems'. The online group work was structured around the production of essay-style critiques and the development of prototype multimedia resources. The discussions were structured using the bulletin board facility in WebCT. The second study involved sixty-four second-year undergraduate students following a module on‘Communication via Multimedia’. These students were involved in assessed online discussion groups that aimed to foster a community in enquiry and provide an opportunity for vicarious learning. The assessed discussion groups were based on Netscape Collabra. A comparison of the experience of these two case studies led to the identification of a set of five key issues relating to best practice in the effective support of online interactivity. The first four issues concern the design and implementation of the online learning experiences. The fifth issue involves reflection and improvement on the interventions mad