All online courses are required by the U.S. Department of Education to have regular and substantive interaction between students and faculty for students to use Title IV funds (federal financial aid). Research shows that teacher-student interactions are an essential component of learning.

Substantive interaction is engaging students in teaching, learning, and assessment, consistent with the content under discussion, and also includes two of the following: 

• Providing direct instruction
• Assessing or providing feedback on student work
• 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
• Other instructional activities approved by the institution's or program's accrediting agency

Things to Consider: How You Can Meet RSI Requirements

• Student Help Hours (Office Hours) – regularly scheduled office hours with students.
• Instruction – synchronous sessions for direct instruction with students or pre-recorded lectures followed by direct instructor-student interaction (Q&A forum).
• Announcements – regularly scheduled and address key topics, concepts, class progress, and questions.
• Discussions – moderating and responding to student work within the discussion.
• Feedback – provide personalized comments on student work. 

Tips/Best Practices

• Set clear expectations for interaction in the syllabus.
• Send course announcements and other messages at regular intervals throughout the course (Blackboard Announcements / Blackboard Messages).
• Provide timely, individualized, and in-depth feedback on student work (Blackboard Annotate / Adding Feedback).
• Actively facilitate online discussions and chats (Blackboard Discussions / Blackboard AI Conversation).
• Conduct regularly scheduled online review sessions, tutorials, office hours, or individual appointments (Zoom).
• Choose online tools and learning environments that make interactions easy – and easy to document (Zoom/ NDSU VoiceThread).
• Collect mid-course feedback from students (PointSolutions, Vevox, Qualtrics, Blackboard Forms). 
• Ask for feedback from colleagues.
• RSI Self-Evaluation from the Office of Teaching and Learning.

Readings and Articles

• Everett Community College Regular and Substantive Interaction – Examples, recommendations, and characteristics of RSI.
• OSCQR – SUNY RSI References and Resources – Examples, guides, and articles on using RSI in an online course.
• Regular and Substantive Interaction (RSI) Examples – Blue Mountain Community College’s RSI Requirement Checklist.
• North Carolina State University Introduction to Regular and Substantive Interaction – Requirements and examples of how to meet requirements.

References