Shared Course Distance Education Course Requirements

At Coconino Community College, we use the following set of standards to control for quality in our online course. Please review the standards carefully before you make any changes to this course, or before you teach the course. You will be expected to design a course that meets these standards while teaching online at Coconino Community College. In addition, all course materials need to meet the WCAG 2.2 Level AA Accessibility Standards. Fortunately, we have tool that can help you ensure that your course materials are accessible. Learn how to use the UDOIT tool to make sure your course materials are accessible in the Faculty 4-11. Learn how to make all your course materials, including MS Word Docs, PowerPoint, PDF, etc. at the Accessibility Tutorials Hub.

As an instructor at Coconino Community College, maintaining quality in online courses is essential for ensuring both compliance with federal standards and a positive, engaging learning experience for students. This guide will walk you through the principles of Regular and Substantive Interaction (RSI), why it matters, and how you can meet these important requirements in your online teaching.

Code of Federal Regulations (600.2Links to an external site.)

What is Regular and Substantive (RSI) Interaction?

RSI refers to the ongoing, meaningful interactions between instructors and students that help students stay engaged, motivated, and on track with their learning. These interactions go beyond passive content delivery; they require active participation from both you, the instructor, and your students.

Key differences between correspondence and online courses

Correspondence Courses

Correspondence courses were the first distance education courses where materials are delivered to the student via mail or a course management system, but the student sets the pace for moving through the material, and there are little or no formative assessments with instructor feedback.

Correspondence courses provide a self-paced learning experience to those unable to attend traditional schools due to geographic, financial, or personal barriers. Despite the accessibility of these courses, they are often criticized for their lack of interaction and support, resulting in high dropout rates and limited student engagement.

Online Courses

Despite the low completion rates of traditional correspondence courses, distance education offers several benefits, including the ability for students to view and revisit material at their own pace, access content in various formats, and choose when and where they want to learn.

Online courses share similarities with correspondence courses but add a crucial component—regular and substantive interaction between instructors and students. Recent research shows that online courses incorporating "humanized" interaction, culturally responsive teaching, and frequent formative assessments with feedback can achieve success rates comparable to in-person instruction.

Key Difference

The most important difference between correspondence courses and online courses is the intentional interaction of an engaged instructor with their students.

Why Does RSI Matter?

Beyond federal compliance, RSI enhances the learning experience by making students feel supported and connected. Students who frequently interact with their instructors tend to be more motivated, have a deeper understanding of the course material, and feel more confident in their ability to succeed. Without regular interaction, students may feel isolated, which can lead to lower engagement and performance.

Federal Distance Education Requirements

At Coconino Community College, our online courses follow the federal definition of distance education (CFR 600.2), updated in September 2021. Adhering to these standards is important for both maintaining the integrity of our courses and ensuring that students can use financial aid. A key element of these requirements is ensuring that your course includes opportunities for RSI.

Regular and Substantive Interaction (RSI) is critical for maintaining the accreditation of our online courses. The Higher Learning Commission, our accrediting body, regularly reviews online courses to ensure they meet RSI standards, distinguishing "online" from "correspondence" courses. During recent accreditation visits, accreditors have randomly selected courses to verify compliance with RSI requirements. To safeguard our accreditation and highlight the quality of our online learning, faculty teaching online must incorporate and demonstrate robust RSI in their course design and instruction, as RSI is mandatory for accreditation and avoiding disciplinary actions.

Substantive Interaction

What Qualifies as Substantive Interaction?

Substantive interaction involves actively engaging students in teaching, learning, and assessment. To meet the federal definition, your course must include at least two of the following:

Providing Direct Instruction: Engaging students in live sessions in real-time.
Assessing Student Work: Offering detailed feedback on quizzes, assignments, or exams.
Answering Questions: Responding to students' questions related to course content or assignments.
Facilitating Discussions: Leading conversations related to the course material.
Other Activities: Any other instructional activities that have been approved by the accrediting agency.

Regular Interaction

What is Regular Interaction?

Regular interaction requires that you create scheduled, predictable opportunities for students to engage with you and the course material. This includes:

Scheduled interactions on a weekly or bi-weekly basis.
Proactively reaching out to students based on their performance and needs, as well as responding to requests for help.

Effective Strategies

In a well-designed online course, an instructor might set up multiple ways to interact with students regularly:

Weekly Announcements: Every Monday, the instructor posts a weekly announcement summarizing the previous week's key points, highlighting common challenges, and previewing what students should focus on next.
Discussion Participation: The instructor is actively involved in the discussion forums, asking follow-up questions to student posts, clarifying concepts, and encouraging further exploration of topics.
Timely Feedback: After each assignment, the instructor provides personalized feedback within 48 hours, offering guidance on how students can improve, while highlighting areas where they did well. For larger assignments, be sure to communicate ahead of time when students can expect feedback from you. You do not have to do this on an individual basis for every assignment, particularly for smaller formative assessments. Rather, you could create an announcement after the assignment commenting on where students could improve, and where they are doing well.
Proactive Engagement: If a student has missed several assignments, the instructor reaches out via Canvas messaging or email, offering support, tips for catching up, and an invitation to a one-on-one meeting.

This approach creates predictable, meaningful opportunities for students to interact with both the course content and the instructor, ensuring regular engagement.

Insufficient Strategies

In contrast, here’s an example where regular interaction is insufficient:

Infrequent Announcements: The instructor posts only one announcement at the beginning of the semester and rarely communicates after that.
Minimal Feedback: The instructor provides feedback on assignments two weeks after submission, often giving generic, one-sentence comments like "Good job" without addressing specific student needs or areas for improvement.
No Proactive Outreach: When students miss assignments or perform poorly, the instructor takes no action to check in or offer additional support. They only respond to student emails if explicitly asked for help.

In this example, the lack of consistent, proactive interaction leads to students feeling disconnected from the course and the instructor, which may hinder their learning and engagement.

Recorded Lectures and RSI

One common question is whether recorded lectures can meet RSI requirements. Recorded lectures alone do not count as substantive interaction. However, there are ways to integrate recorded content into a course that meets RSI guidelines. For instance:

Follow-up Engagement: After students watch a recorded lecture, you should facilitate a related discussion in forums or hold office hours where students can ask questions and receive direct instruction.
Active Participation: Pairing recorded lectures with interactive elements, such as quizzes or assignments that require feedback from you, can help turn passive learning into an interactive experience.
Scheduled Interactions: Even when using recorded material, you must ensure that you offer regular, scheduled opportunities for live or direct engagement, such as synchronous sessions, timely feedback on discussions, or one-on-one meetings.

Individualized Feedback

Personalized feedback on assignments and assessments is another effective form of timely feedback. By addressing each student’s unique needs and offering guidance for improvement, you can help students feel more connected and supported.

By combining recorded content with active engagement, you not only meet RSI requirements but also provide your students with a richer, more connected learning experience.

Group Feedback via Announcements

In addition to personalized feedback, using group feedback through the announcement tool is a powerful way to address common misconceptions and highlight areas where the class is performing well. It is preferable to use video announcements that change each semester and meet your learners' unique needs. By identifying trends in student work, you can provide targeted guidance that benefits the entire group, helping to clarify challenging concepts and reinforce successful strategies.

This approach not only supports timely and efficient communication but also enhances the sense of community in your course, ensuring that all students feel informed and supported in their learning journey.

Direct Instruction

Direct Instruction: How to Implement It in Your Course

Synchronous Lectures

The federal government only allows live lectures through tools like Zoom for real-time interaction to be considered direct instruction, where students can ask questions and you can provide immediate feedback. If live sessions are not feasible, pairing recorded lectures with follow-up activities such as forum discussions can still meet RSI standards, but not under direct instruction. It would be considered feedback.

Discussion Participation

Facilitating Group Discussions: Encouraging Peer Interaction

Engaging students in group discussions helps to create a collaborative learning environment that fosters deeper engagement. Here are some ways to implement this:

Discussion Forums

Discussion forums are a space where students can interact with each other and you can provide feedback, encouragement, and guidance. These forums can help students connect course material with their own experiences, creating more meaningful learning.

Synchronous Group Sessions

Live group sessions using video conferencing tools allow students to work through course material together, with your guidance. This type of interaction not only meets RSI standards but also fosters community.

Collaborative Projects

Collaborative projects encourage students to apply what they've learned in a group setting. Assign roles, monitor progress, and provide feedback throughout the project to maintain regular, substantive interaction.

Enhance Instructor Presence

Enhancing Your Instructor Presence: Building a Learning Community

One of the best ways to meet RSI requirements is by being actively present in your course. Instructor presence helps create a sense of community and makes students feel supported. Here are some tools in Canvas that can help:

Announcements

Use announcements to keep students informed about course updates, deadlines, and important tips. This is a great way to stay engaged with your students throughout the course.

Conversations

The Conversations tool in Canvas allows you to communicate directly with students. Use this tool to provide personalized feedback, answer questions, or address course concerns.

SpeedGrader

SpeedGrader is a powerful tool for providing timely, personalized feedback on assignments. Make sure to offer specific, constructive feedback that helps students understand where they can improve.

RSI Commitment

Creating a RSI Commitment

In the Welcome Module or in your syllabus, you will need to clearly communicate how you will meet RSI requirements. Including an RSI communication plan helps set student expectations and ensures compliance. Here’s an example:

RSI Communication Commitment

Although I don’t have a physical office on campus, I am fully accessible throughout the semester. Here’s how
I’ll stay engaged with you and our class:

Weekly personalized feedback on assignments.
Customized weekly announcements addressing class needs.
Timely responses to questions via email or course messaging (within 24-48 hours on weekdays, and
48-72 hours on weekends).

Turnaround for longer assignments is up to one week.

For questions:

Post to the Ask Professor [Name] discussion.
I’m available via student hours, email, phone, and text.

My goal is to maintain ongoing dialogue, provide direct instruction, and foster meaningful interactions,
ensuring you feel supported and valued throughout your learning experience.

RSI Communication Plan

In addition to a RSI statement, please include a Communication Plan in the Welcome module.

Table 1. RSI Communication Plan - Example
Activity	Frequency	Tools Used	Description
Weekly Announcements	Weekly	Canvas Announcements	Provide an overview of upcoming activities and key points from the previous week.
Feedback on Assignments	24-48 hours for short assignments; 1 week for larger projects	Canvas SpeedGrader	Offer personalized feedback, highlighting areas for improvement and reinforcing strengths.
Synchronous Office Hours	Weekly (Scheduled)	Zoom/Canvas Conferences	Host live sessions for students to ask questions and receive real-time support.
Video Announcements	Weekly	Canvas Announcements	Post video updates summarizing course progress and upcoming expectations.

Final Thoughts

By incorporating Regular and Substantive Interaction (RSI) into your course, you are not only fulfilling federal requirements but also enhancing the learning experience for your students. Your active involvement helps them feel connected, supported, and engaged, which can make a lasting impact on their success.

References

34 CFR 600.2 “Distance education” Links to an external site.

34 CFR 600.2 “Correspondence course”

Regular and Substantive Interaction: Background, Concerns, and Guiding Principles