Center for Online Learning & TeachingRSI: Regular and Substantive Interactions

Our courses must be of the highest quality, containing only the best for our students. All courses taught online, synchronously or asynchronously, are required to have at least two weekly interactions with students of a regular and substantive nature (Shasta College AP 4105). This interaction is what separates distance education from correspondence education, making our students eligible for financial aid. (Higher Education Opportunity Act, 2008) Let's break this down.

How do I know if my course includes Regular and Substantive Interaction?

Regular substantive interaction (RSI) is engaging students in teaching, learning, and assessment and includes the following criteria:

Initiated by the Instructor
Frequent and Consistent
Focused on Course Content

RSI must also include at least two of the following activity types on a regular and predictable basis.

- Assessing or providing feedback on a student coursework.
  - Ex. A well-designed rubric (good but not great). Use Rubrics to clearly indicate to students how their work compares to the grading criteria
  - Ex. A well-designed rubric with added comments on strengths or growth opportunities
  - Ex. Comments on graded assignments that support learning or reinforcement. Create a comment library in Speedgrader to streamline your workflow
  - Ex. Announcement that reinforces what students were meant to learn and addresses muddy points uncovered by a learning activity
- Providing information or responding to questions about the content of a course or competency.
  - Ex. A well-designed rubric (ok but not great)
  - Ex. A well-designed rubric with added comments on strengths or growth opportunities
  - Ex. Announcement that reinforces what students were meant to learn and addresses muddy points uncovered by a learning activity
  - Ex. A course announcement with a recorded video followed by related learning activities where interaction with the instructor occurs
  - Ex. A course announcement with a Module introduction that gives a brief overview of the topic and includes the planned objectives and learning activities for the week
  - Ex. A video lecture with embedded questions
  - Ex. Written, slide deck, or audio content that introduces a new concept followed by related learning activities where interaction with the instructor occurs
- Facilitating a group discussion regarding the content of a course or competency.
  - Ex. Comments/Participation in a discussion that
    - redirects students back to the primary learning objectives,
    - asks them to clarify points,
    - restates most salient points
    - summarize at the end to support learning objectives.

How do I know if my interactions are regular?

ACCJC also provides guidance on the definition of regular, "interaction between a student and an instructor or instructors by, prior to the student's completion of a course or competency":

Providing the opportunity for substantive interactions with the student on a predictable and regular basis commensurate with the length of time and the amount of content in the course or competency.

Examples:
- You establish predictable publishing, unlocking, and availability window cycles (modules, assignments, or announcements) with due dates spread throughout the semester.
- You provide a tentative schedule showing items such as frequency of student contact, due dates, topics of instruction, etc.
- You provide information regarding how you contact students and how students contact the instructor.
- You provide information regarding the expectation of the type and frequency of interactions during the course.

(Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges, Western Association of Schools and Colleges, June 2021)

TLDR; In short, what does this mean?

Review your course(s) to make sure you have at least two substantive interactions per week with your students. These interactions focus on the content and must provide students with information they can use to improve and move forward in the course. Comments like "great job" or "nice work" are not considered substantive or predictable. We can leverage the opportunity to show our students that we are humans who care about their learning.

Examples of Regular Substantive Interaction (RSI) in Action

Faculty are encouraged to use the Canvas Comment Library to streamline feedback workflows

Examples of Substantive Announcements

Examples of Substantive Gradebook Feedback for Papers

Examples of Substantive Gradebook Feedback for Discussions

Examples of Substantive Discussion Forum Participation

Examples of Rubrics

Examples of things that may be "nice" but are not RSI

Book a Conversation with Us!

Questions about regular and substantive interaction? No need to guess. Jo, Yun-Pu or Paul can help.

Additional Learning Options

Self-paced Learning