The impact of transactional distance dialogic interactions on student learning outcomes in online and blended environments

This study measured how student interactions (as captured by Transactional Distance dialogue (Moore, 1993)) in online and blended learning environments impacted student learning outcomes, as measured by student satisfaction and student grades. Dialogue was measured as student interactions with other students (student-student interaction), the technologies used (student-technology interaction), the instructors (student-teacher interaction), and the course contents (student-content interaction). In addition, moderating effects of media and modality of interactions and individual differences on student learning outcomes were also measured. Data was obtained from 342 online and blended students between 2010 and 2013. Findings indicate that student-content interaction had a larger effect on student learning outcomes than other forms of dialogue. Implications for educational policies that require teacher-presence (student-teacher) and student-student interactions in distance learning environments are also discussed.