Regular and Substantive Interaction (RSI)

Brief Description

Regular and substantive interaction, often referred to as RSI, is a U.S. Department of Education requirement that ensures distance education students using federal financial aid have opportunities for interaction with course instructors.

Definitions

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

  • 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
  • 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.

For purposes of this definition, 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—

  • Providing direct instruction;
  • Assessing or providing feedback on a student’s coursework;
  • Providing information or responding to questions about the content of a course or competency;
  • Facilitating a group discussion regarding the content of a course or competency; or,
  • Other instructional activities approved by the institution’s or program’s accrediting agency.

Source: WCET Regular and Substantive Interaction Refresh and 34 CFR 600.2

Supporting Resources

Regular interaction is predictable, scheduled, and frequent.

  • Feedback is timely and provided within a length of time that allows students to incorporate changes prior to summative assessments. Feedback is formative and received with enough time to complete revision or improvements prior to the submission of assessments for grading (summative evaluation).
  • Feedback is provided for activities and assessments. Learners receive a variety of feedback from the course instructor(s), automated activities and assessments, or peer-review from other learners.
  • Instructors or facilitators have the opportunity to monitor the academic engagement and success of learners and provide feedback that is prompt and proactive based on their monitoring of learner success or on request.

Examples of regular interaction include:

  • A syllabus statement articulates the method by which students can ask questions and get feedback from their instructor (e.g., email or office hours).
  • The plan for expected turnaround time for response to posts, feedback on activities and assessments, responses to emails, and grades are shared with students.
  • Discussion forum and other assignment descriptions indicate students will receive feedback from the instructor.
  • Learners submit a draft paper, project, or portfolio and receive comments and suggestions from the instructor prior to submitting final versions for grading.
  • Learners submit a practice journal reflection and receive suggestions for improvement prior to submitting a graded journal entry each week.

Non-examples include:

  • The instructor monitors learners logging in each week but does not provide specific feedback to them.
  • Learners receive peer feedback without monitoring or correction from the instructor.
  • Learners regularly participate in discussions without monitoring, guidance, or feedback from the instructor.
  • In each module, learners receive a grade from auto-graded quizzes without other monitoring or feedback.
  • Learners do not have an opportunity to ask questions about the content of weekly asynchronous video lectures.
  • Auto-released weekly announcements are not updated to give feedback for current, specific coursework or learner progress.

Substantive interaction is aligned with course objectives, amount of course content or subject matter, purpose and level of the course, and activity or assessment evaluation criteria.

  • Direct instruction by the instructor or facilitator
  • Feedback on assessments or coursework
  • Information or providing answers to questions about content or competencies from learners
  • Summary feedback provided to all learners through announcements or whole-class feedback
  • Other items approved by the institution or accrediting body.

Substantive feedback is specific, focuses on behavior, explains why a behavior should be improved, and provides concrete next steps on how to make improvements.

Examples of substantive interaction include:

  • Self-scoring quizzes or tests include correct answers and feedback for incorrect answers. Learners know which individual questions were answered incorrectly and not just a cumulative grade.
  • Games or simulations include built-in feedback.
  • Rubrics provide clear criteria and descriptions for grading which learners may refer to before and/or after grading.
  • Learners compare their own work to model papers, essays, sample answers, or answer keys prior to assessment.
  • Learners receive comments, suggestions, or critiques from peer reviewers which encourage reflection and improvement of papers, projects, or portfolios.
  • Learners receive credit for participation or grades of complete/incomplete with feedback.

Non-examples include:

  • Learners receive a quiz score but are not informed of specific incorrect answers.
  • Learners receive a participation score based on the number of posts to a discussion forum and do not receive feedback on the content or quality of the posts.
  • Learners receive a participation score based on how many times they log in to the LMS.
  • Learners receive a rubric score without clear descriptions of the assessed level of performance or without specific comments directed to why rubric criteria were met or not met.

Additional Resources

 

This resource was created by the RSI working group: Penny Ralston-Berg, Mary Alyce Nelson, Kent Matsueda, and Marilyn Goodrich. For more information about our quality standards, see Penn State Quality Assurance e-Learning Design Standards.

Page Contact: Penny Ralston-Berg

The Pennsylvania State University © 2024 | Privacy | Legal