The integration of interactive strategies in two-way interactive video instruction: A case study of instructional thought versus instructional performance

This study focuses on the integration of instructional strategies that facilitate cross-site and within-site interaction in video-based distance education. It utilizes a multi-method case study approach and follows one professor in Library and Information Science as he makes the transition from on-campus to distance instruction. Two separate formats of interactive video instruction were investigated (one-way video and two-way audio, two-way video and audio). In the first phase of the investigation, the initial transition from on-campus classroom instruction to technology-based distance education was documented. Next, observation procedures to identify and classify in-class instructional activity linked to the instructional design and development process were developed. These observation protocols were then implemented in a semester-long investigation in which the professor reviewed summary reports of observed in-class activity following each class session and discussed the results obtained in relation to established goals and objectives. Results indicate that in this specific case study, instructional planning was largely an informal mental process refined over years of practice. Methods went largely with content and only when anomalies or irregularities were experienced in the process of instruction did a consideration of design and development issues come to a surface level. This triage-driven instructional development process was amplified as the professor made the transition from a relatively stable on-campus classroom environment to a technologically rich and rapidly evolving distance instructional setting. The study concludes that in moving from a stable instructional environment to one lacking an established body of standards of practice those designing instruction should look beyond the operational aspects of the technologies utilized and consider the changing dynamics of interaction which such an environment poses. Specifically, instructors and instructional developers should be circumspect in a wholesale application of skills and strategies developed in traditional classroom environments to distance settings and should consider the influence of the technologies utilized on interpersonal and instructional discourse. The use of technology adds variables to the teaching/learning transaction and instructional strategies developed in traditional on-campus instructional settings may not transfer readily to the distance environment or may overlook capabilities and potentials which such settings offer.