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This study investigated the effects of three types of interaction (academic, collaborative and social interaction)on learning, satisfaction, participation and attitude towards online learning in a Web-based instruction (WBI)environment.Academic interaction includes interaction between learners and online resources as well as task-oriented interaction between learners and instructor. Collaborative interaction among learners becomes possible when a group of learners work collaboratively on a specific topic or share ideas and materials to solve a given problem. Social interaction between learners and instructors occurs when instructors adopt strategies to promote interpersonal encouragement or social integration. The results indicate that: the social interaction group outperformed the other groups; the collaborative interaction group expressed the highest level of satisfaction with their learning experience; the collaborative and social interaction groups participated more actively in posting their opinions than the academic interaction group; and Web-based learning experiences brought positive attitude changes with respect to the use of the Web in learning - regardless of the type of interaction. It is concluded that even for adult learners, social interaction with instructors and collaborative interaction with peer students are important in enhancing learning and active participation in online discussion.
Jung et al. (2002) studied this question.