Regular and Substantive Interaction

Introduction

Regular and Substantive Interaction (RSI) in distance education refers to meaningful and consistent engagement between students and their instructors and the educational content. These interactions are critical to fostering high-quality learning, requiring instructors to actively engage with students in a meaningful manner, ensuring consistent, tailored support that aligns with the course content and outcomes. This ensures that the instructor is actively present and encourages students to move beyond passive absorption of information to active participation in the learning process.

The U.S. Department of Education now requires that all online courses for which students may use Title IV funds (federal financial aid) ensure that there is regular and substantive interaction between students and faculty. Aligned with the federal definition, the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) also mandates that institutions ensure “regular and substantive interaction” in distance education. HLC further details expectations for both regular and substantive engagement to promote meaningful instructor-student interaction.

Regular Interaction: An institution ensures regular interaction between a student and an instructor or instructors, prior to the student’s completion of a course or competency, by:

1. Providing the opportunity for regular 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
2. 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.

Substantive Interaction: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:

1. Providing direct instruction via a synchronous session;
2. Assessing or providing feedback on a student’s coursework;
3. Providing information or responding to questions about the content of a course or competency;
4. Facilitating a group discussion regarding the content of a course or competency; or
5. Other instructional activities approved by HLC or the program’s accrediting agency.