Interactivity Demystified: A Structural Definition for Distance Education and Intelligent CBT

"Interactive" and "interactivity" are some of the most commonly used terms in instruction. For example, we are often told that multimedia (among other emerging technologies) is superior to "traditional" instruction, often because it is "interactive." However, the term interactivity is a loosely defined term that, according to Rose (1999), seems to deconstruct itself when closely examined. Her insightful and provocative article contends that the term is filled with inconsistencies. In his keynote address at AACE, Thomas Reeves (1999) seemed to agree. He claimed that we do not have a very good definition of interactivity in instruction, and that "teacher-in-a box" has been the prevailing approach to the design of mediated instruction.