Abstract

This Paper presents an investigation into the utilization, by non-participating students in group learning activities, of vicarious interaction and the compensatory effectiveness of this type of interaction for learning. A total of five student interactions have been reported to date for achieving learning ; between the student and content, the student and teacher, the student and other student(s), the student and the technology, and between the student and the interactions-between-others. This last interaction has been termed vicarious interaction and reported as the learning interaction that can occur when a student actively attends to, absorbs, and cognitively processes the interactions that are going on between the teacher and another student or between two other students. Vicarious interaction has been postulated in theory and has not yet been determined or demonstrated in practice. In a carefully controlled study, recall and self-reported interactions did not clearly express vicarious interaction. The findings showed no evidence for any vicarious interaction leading to improved quality of learning, which has important implications for this type of interaction existing or being useful in computer-mediated communications. The present study is the first to investigate empirically vicarious interaction for learning

Citation

Kawachi, P. (2003). Vicarious Interaction and the Achieved Quality of Learning. International Journal on E-Learning, 2(4), 39-45. Norfolk, VA: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). Retrieved August 9, 2024 from https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/2114/.

© 2003 Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE)

Keywords

• computer-mediated communication
• Distance Education
• Educational Technology
• Elementary Education
• Learning Outcomes
• Secondary Education
• student interaction