Regular and Substantive Interaction (RSI)

Recommendations for Faculty

Regular and Substantive Interaction (RSI) is a federal requirement for distance education, ensuring online courses include frequent, instructor-initiated, and academically focused engagement to distinguish them from correspondence courses. RSI combines scheduled interaction ("regular") with academic engagement ("substantive"), such as instructor-led discussions, feedback on work, and direct instruction, ensuring quality and eligibility for federal financial aid.

There are three types of interactions, all of which should be present in a course in order to meet RSI standards:

• student <-> content
• student <-> instructor
• student <-> learner

Below you will find helpful recommendations, examples and resources for how faculty could adjust their courses to meet RSI expectations. 

Student <-> Content Interaction

Definition: Student <-> content interaction involves learners using the content, resources and activities provided in the course independently. course.

The following are examples of student <-> content interaction:

• reading from a textbook, article, or online resource
• viewing a lecture video
• assigned completion of workbook or online exercises (which may be auto-graded or include auto-feedback)

Variety of Content

Courses that rely heavily on the textbook and publisher lab materials may work well for some students, but not all. Varying material sources and types can add to student learning and engagement, as well as provide content from multiple perspectives and modes of learning. Providing students the chance to absorb content through different means (reading, watching, listening, etc.) provides options and can help hold attention.

Use this guide to evaluate the variety of student-to-content interaction options in your course. 

Open

Finding/creating educationalvaried resources
Openmaterials:

Educational Resources - Clarkson's Bookstack

1.  

   Utilize Open Educational Resources (OER) like those found in OER hubs such as MERLOT. OERs are freely available teaching and learning materials that can be used, adapted, and shared. These tools help faculty find, remix, and create high-quality, openly licensed course content.
   
   

    Clarkson's Guide to Open Educational Resources

Examples for finding/creating varied materials:

1. Locate YouTube videos, OERexternal resources such as MERLOT,library articles, YouTube videos or podcasts on the course topics (some students LOVE learning via podcast!).
   
   
2. Create interactive lessons using programs available right in Moodle or integrated such as H5P, withwhich includes over 40 types of learning materials you (or your students) can create,create and interact with, and use for assessment in Moodle.with. A variety of materials helps keep students engaged in courses.

Instructor-to-Student <-> Instructor Interaction

Definition: Student <-> instructor interaction involves learners and instructors communicating regarding course material or assessments.

The following are examples of student interaction<-> instructor interaction:

• Accordingsubmitting toan theassignment resultsor ofproject thefor rubric,individual many instructors have not been providinginstructor feedback in the gradebook.
• Additionally,posting discussionsto area notdiscussion builtforum intowhich theincludes courses.both student and instructor participation
• Manyparticipating courses scoredin a “1-Doessynchronous Notsession Meetwhich Standard”involves inopportunity thefor following areas shown on the rubric excerpt below.Q&A

Use this guide to evaluate the variety of student-to-content interaction options in your course.

Recommendation: Review the resources below to help add these types of interactions to the courses.

Giving feedback:

Grading & Giving Feedback - Clarkson's Bookstack

• This article provides guidance on giving substantive feedback.  

Example for feedback based on Quality Matters guidelines:

1. Analyze the student’s work based on what might be improved:
   • What specifically might be improved?
   • Where?
   • Is the suggested improvement observable?
     
     
2. Write your suggested improvements to the student:
   • Is it written to your student respectfully, in a manner that will encourage them to make improvements?
   • Have both strengths and areas for improvement been noted?

Discussions and announcements:

Communication is Key - Clarkson's Bookstack  

• This article demonstrates the various ways to communicate with students in Moodle.

Student-to-student interaction

For this area of RSI, most of the reviewed courses scored a “1-Does Not Meet Standard” in all three of these categories.

Recommendation: Faculty can improve their RSI score by providing student-to-student interaction based on the following parameters. Review the resources below to help add these interactions to the courses.

Collaborative learning activities:

Engagement & Interaction-Clarkson's Bookstack

• The tools listed foster student interaction, participation, and collaboration—whether in real-time or asynchronously. Use them to spark discussions, gather insights, or make learning more active and social.

Communication & Collaboration-Clarkson's Bookstack 

• These tools help faculty and students connect, collaborate, and share ideas. Use them to create interactive discussions, virtual teamwork, or real-time class engagement.

Examples for collaborative activities:

 1. Have students create a short video showing an experiment they conduct to show their understanding of the physics concepts covered in the course. Have students comment on each other’s videos with their questions. 

2. Provide students with guidelines for creating study groups for working on homework together (students have Zoom accounts, too). This gives them an opportunity to learn from each other.

3. At a minimum, create an Introductions/Icebreaker forum to begin creating a sense of class community right from the start. 

4. And add a Q&A forum for communication between students and instructors. 

Discussions and News & Announcements:

Communication is Key | Clarkson's Bookstack  

• Whether taking a math, physics, physical therapy, or digital marketing class, students need to feel they are not in it alone. Get them talking, assess their contributions and provide feedback to help students learn the material. Here are various ways to communicate with students in Moodle.

Examples for discussions:

1. Muddiest Point Forum: Use the discussion forums to have students share what they are struggling with the most each week. Make participation mandatory. This creates a dialogue where students can learn from their instructor AND from each other. Provide guidance to them where needed.

2. Scenario Based Forum: Think about the topic students are learning whether it be calculus or business, where would the topic be implemented in various scenarios. Have students role play parts in the scenario and see where it leads. Provide guidance when needed or play a role yourself.

The TLC instructional design team would be happy to brainstorm/partner with you to increase RSI in your online course. Reach out by submitting a request to helpdesk@clarkson.edu