An Investigation of Distance Education Students' Interaction Experiences

The purpose of the study is to investigate the interaction experiences of distance education students within the framework of interaction types. The interaction experiences of 10 undergraduate distance education students were examined in the study using the phenomenological method. Research data were collected using a semi-structured interview form and analyzed using a seven-step phenomenological analysis method. How students make sense of interaction in distance education was defined by four themes: interobjectivity, timing, intimacy and immediacy, and readiness. The study discussed the propositions of interaction equivalence theory in light of the participants' views. The results suggest that other types of interaction can be ignored when student-content or student-instructor interaction is at a high level. The results also show that student-content, student-instructor, and student-student interaction are important in distance education, ranked from most important to least important. The common opinion of all participants is that the most important type of interaction in distance education is student-content interaction. The findings obtained by this study can raise awareness among stakeholders by understanding the interaction experiences of distance education students, and help proactively increase their potential interaction experiences.