Didactic interaction in e-learning: new styles for new environments

The processes of learning have become more complex due to the rise of new technologies, especially the internet. The possibilities of open and flexible collaborative learning have awakened the interest of teachers and researchers in investigating and understanding the conditions and features that the new learning methods can contribute. If as teachers we can be pleased about the possibilities of a pedagogic change that e-learning can bring about, as researchers we must not stop questioning ourselves about the quality of these processes of education and learning. This paper presents the results of a research in which we analyse the processes of asynchronous communication in the forums of e-learning. We have developed a system of categories that allows the analysis of the didactic interaction. We present this system, as well as the analysis of the data that we have obtained. We show the importance of attending to the elements of social communication, cognitive and didactics so that the learning in virtual environments will be developed in a more effective way.