With the increase in the development of new technologies and innovations, the new trends have emerged in every field of life. The innovation of information technologies has reduced the impacts of distances to great extent. The education sector is also positively benefited by the new emerging technologies and trends. These technologies have altered the nature of distance education in the last decades by giving the way to the learners and the teachers to interact with one another regardless of being placed in different geographical locations around the world.
The interactivity is a shared act among the learner, the teachers, the learning systems and the educating materials. A number of studies have found that the interactivity has a positive impact on learning processes. If there is an adequate level of interactivity in the online education system, then it has positive impact upon the learners as the learner learn more quicker and they develop better attitudes toward learning by having the use of interactive media systems.
Discussion
Importance of interactivity within the online course environment
There is great importance of interactivity among the learners, the educators and the educating materials within the online course environment. If there is flexible interactivity, the online and distance education can assist in attaining that level of quality education that is being provided in the physical institutions and colleges. The flexible and adequate level of interactivity in the online course environment engages effectively the learners in the online learning environment by providing them the proper communication control and by providing them the appropriate level of feedback wherever they require. The flexible and effective communication and the feedback are two important and significant aspects of the interactivity. According to Swan, K., Shea, P., et al. (2000), the interactivity among the online course students develop better discussion opportunities that further allows the students to explore many essential aspects of the course. The authors have found that the interactivity aspect is an essential and influential characteristic of the online courses. It has been also found that the most of students believe that the online course discussions in the flexible and interactive environment are more equitable and more independent as compared to the traditional classroom discussions.
According to Farahani, G. O. (2003), if there is interactivity in the online course environment, the students achieve an accurate level of satisfaction from getting proper education through the interactive environment. There are various forms of interactivity that are essential in the online course environment. The students interact with that of the online teachers by online communication software and also by the emails in order to get the feedback on their work and learning concepts. According to McNaught, C. (2003), the interactivity is an essential combination of the communication, participation and the feedback. The accurate level of online communication develops a healthy participation and discussion in the learning environment. If both the course teachers and the students want to have an active participation in the online course environment, relating to the academic discussion, then there ...