Social interaction as a contributor to significant learning outcomes in online instruction

There has been a dramatic increase in online coursework in higher education over the past decade. According to Allen and Seaman (2010), there was a 17% growth in online enrollments between 2007 and 2008. While many institutions offer only single courses online, others offer entire degrees and students at all educational levels (from primary school through graduate school) are choosing to participate in courses through a distance format, including hybrid and fully online options