Design And Implementation Of A Student Chat Information System

C.    Learner-Instructor Interaction
The interaction that transpires between students and lecturer is intended to help reinforce student understanding of the material or elucidate meanings. Interacting with instructors can help students clarify difficult points and reinforce correct interpretation of course information. In the traditional classroom setting, often times learner-instructor interaction can occur. In the web-based course, most often this type of interaction must be transmitted by electronic means, such as chat discussions or e-mail communications.
The role of the instructor in a web-based pedagogical format is a dramatic change from one in the traditional classroom. In the traditional classroom, the instructor often takes centre stage and becomes a lecturer; in the web-based format, the instructor becomes more of a facilitator (Gutierrez, 2000). Researchers have indicated that the quality of interactions in the web-based courses between students and instructors were equal to, or better than, interactions in the traditional courses (Lenhart et al., 2001).
D.    Face-To-Face Interaction
In a face-to-face interaction, students, Lecturers and materials are not separated. They can discuss by pointing and by writing on it. The concern regarding the absence of the face-to-face interaction between students/instructors, and the potential impact on student learning has been broached by many (Barnes, 2000; Beard and Harper, 2002). In an attempt to better understand the differences between the traditional classroom environment and a learning environment augmented or replaced with distance education technology, Restauri (2001) compared end of course evaluations between a face-to-face course and an online course. Restauri (2001) concluded that the face-to-face factor was not important, rather students’ interaction needs in the online environment was more dependent on frequency and personalized contact. Furthermore, high frequency of private email communication between student and instructor has been identified as a strong predictor for higher student grades (Stocks & Freddolino, 1998).
2.4    limitations of the existing system