Learning at distance: Effects of interaction traces on academic achievement

Contemporary literature on online and distance education almost unequivocally argues for the importance of interactions in online learning settings. Nevertheless, the relationship between di erent types of interactions and learning outcomes is rather complex. Analyzing 204 o erings of 29 courses, over the period of six years, this study aimed at expanding the current understanding of the nature of this relationship. Speci cally, with the use of trace data about interactions and utilizing the multilevel linear mixed modeling techniques, the study examined whether frequency and duration of student-student, student-instructor, student-system, and student-content interactions had an e ect of learning outcomes, measured as nal course grades. The ndings show that the time spent on student-system interactions had a consistent and positive e ect on the learning outcome, while the quantity of student-content interactions was negatively associated with the nal course grades. The study also showed the importance of the educational level and the context of individual courses for the interaction types supported. Our ndings further con rmed the potential of the use of trace data and learning analytics for studying learning and teaching in online settings. However, further research should account for various qualitative aspects of the interactions used while learning, di erent pedagogical/media features, as well as for the course design and delivery conditions in order to better explain the association between interaction types and the learning achievement. Finally, the results might imply the need for the development of the institutional and program-level strategies for learning and teaching that would promote e ective pedagogical approaches to designing and guid1 ing interactions in online and distance learning settings.