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WebCT, a web-based virtual learning environment (VLE) and Interactive TV (ITV) are relatively new technologies that are used to deliver distance education at the Faculty of Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University. This study explores how effective current approaches to instructional design and interaction have been in utilizing these two technologies to support interaction and what lessons can be learnt. Five focus-group interviews were held with students and lecturers to assess the perceived quality of student-lecturer/student-student interactions. All students were invited to complete a questionnaire at the end of every module to assess their perceptions of interaction. Interaction was highly valued by students and lecturers participating in distance-learning programmes utilizing either VLE or ITV. Students rated courses using both technologies as moderately interactive. Significant differences between VLE and ITV were detected in student-lecturer and student-student interactions, use of additional modes of communication, instructional design, technological interactivity and social rapport activities. The groups did not differ across a number of likely barriers to interaction and both also reported the need for more flexible and better paced instructional designs.

Introduction: This study focuses on the quality of interaction in interactive TV (ITV), WebCT bulletin boards (BBs) and chat rooms (CRs) and addresses the question of how effectively new collaborative electronic technologies have been married with new pedagogical ideas to create effective learning for distance education students., Methods: Fifteen (out of 68) BB, 14 (out of 32) CR and 13 (out of 25) ITV conversations were randomly selected for coding using a modified exchange structure analysis. The roles that students and lecturers took in the conversations were determined from this., Results: The percentage of turns made by lecturers as opposed to students was 51% in CRs, 14% in BBs and 68% in ITV. The percentage of turns spent on actual coursework was 73% in CRs, 89% in BBs and 82% in ITV. Comparisons between tutors' and students' roles within as well as between ITV, BBs and CRs were all statistically significant with P < 0.05. In CRs the main roles of both students and lecturers were those of elaborators, inquirers and explainers. In BBs the main roles of students and lecturers were those of explainers and evaluators. In ITV sessions students' main roles were those of elaborators and explainers, whereas lecturers' main roles were those of lecturers, elaborators, inquirers and evaluators., Conclusion: In terms of creating a constructivist and active learning community that can operate within a distance learning paradigm, WebCT appears superior to ITV.