Basic Information

Introduction


Greetings and salutations! 


This strategy guide will outline some necessary instructor-student interactions here in the Writers’ Studio, as well as some best practices for student engagement. These activities are designed to boost investment and interaction with course content while mitigating psychological and intellectual gaps between students and instructional staff. We will also outline retention strategies for struggling students, and for those who stop participating at some point in the semester. 


As you read through these engagement strategies, it may help to remember that while we cannot control how much students involve themselves with our content, we can control the amount, quality, and variety of opportunities we provide them. These human elements–the moments of substantive human interaction we create–will keep our instruction relevant and competitive even despite the growing prevalence of AI in our field. 






Important Terms to Know in Online Teaching


Regular and Substantive Interactions (RSI): Legal requirement that online classes must offer meaningful teacher-student interactions to be eligible for federal financial aid under Title IV. 

Regular: Interactions must be frequent and consistent. 

Substantive: Interactions must be relevant and meaningful to course content. They must go beyond procedural or administrative communication. 

Instructor-initiated: Instructors should be actively engaging students rather than waiting for students to interact.

Academic: Interactions must directly address course content and learning objectives. 

Universal Design for Learning (UDL): Framework for maximizing accessibility in online courses. Courses would ideally provide multiple means of engagement, representation, and action or expression. 

Online Learning Consortium (OLC): Specialist organization that provides research-based best practices for online teaching and learning to best ensure RSI compliance.

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG): Guidelines which help ensure all course content is accessible even to disabled persons. Examples include having captions for videos, transcripts for podcasts, and audio description (or text for screen readers) for visual elements. WCAG helps ensure RSI, ADA, and Section 508 compliance. 






Sources


U.S. Department of Education (2021) – Defines RSI requirements under federal regulations for online education.


https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-34/subtitle-B/chapter-VI/part-600



National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements (NC-SARA) – Discusses RSI compliance for distance education.


https://www.nc-sara.org/



Online Learning Consortium (OLC) – Research-based recommendations for high-quality online education.


https://onlinelearningconsortium.org/



Quality Matters (QM) Framework – Standards for online course design and faculty interaction.


https://www.qualitymatters.org/



WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) – Official guidelines for digital accessibility.


https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/wcag/



Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act – U.S. law requiring accessible digital content.


https://www.section508.gov/

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