The design of interactivity for a Web-based learning environment at a higher education institution

M.Ed.Interactivity has been the subject of much discussion and is considered one of the most essential and critical elements in education. As more and more higher education institutions offer web-based learning as a medium of instruction, instructional designers and educators face an ever-greater challenge to design web-based learning environments that facilitate successful interactivity which actively involves learners in the learning process, and enables them to reach the intended outcomes of a specific course. Against this background, the research question for this inquiry was formulated as: How is interactivity designed for a web-based learning environment at a higher education institution? To answer the above question, a review of relevant literature was conducted to clarify the conceptual representation of interactivity/interaction and to establish the different types of interaction. Furthermore, the pedagogical principles that underpin interactivity were also identified through the literature review, including the verification of communication technologies that promote interactivity in a webbased learning environment. This inquiry followed an exploratory, descriptive qualitative research approach. The research method was a case study, and the data was obtained by means of a literature review, standardised open-ended interviews, review of web pages, and a checklist. The participants in the study were the instructional designer who designed the selected module, and the lecturer who facilitated the module. Once the data were collected, they were transcribed and reduced. Categories and subcategories were derived from the data that emerged from the interviews, and the documentary analysis of the course web pages and checklist were used as supportive sources of data collection. The findings of this inquiry indicate that the design of the interactivity for the Business Ethics web-based learning environment (the module selected for the purposes of this study) to a large extent took the types of interaction, pedagogical principles that underpin interactivity and communication technologies identified in the literature review into consideration. The research project concludes with an articulation of the limitations of the study, and recommendations for further research