The Multidimensional Audioconferencing Classification System (MACS)

Increasing awareness and emphasis on interactional aspects of distance education is accompanied by growing interest in describing the actual process of audioconferencing instruction. Drawing on three theoretical and empirical streams—systematic small group interaction analysis, systematic classroom interaction analysis, and interaction in distance education settings—the schema presented here offers an approach to classify and analyze the elements accounted for by the contextual structure in audioconferencing instruction.