Yet those are the tasks we set for ourselves when we attempt to move learning from a conventional setting, such as a classroom, to an unconventional one, such as the Internet. In other words, what we lose is a whole series of unscripted interactions between the individual student and the physical environment, the other students, and the instructor. What we gain is the ability to script a different series of interactivities between the student and the material. The extent to which that is possible, and the extent to which we succeed in our attempt, is the extent to which an online course can approach, and even surpass, the learning model of a conventional classroom. Interactivity, then, is the key to successful online learning.
High definition is the state of being well filled with data.
Indeed, channel-surfing, which increases the supply of sensory data while numbing the viewer's responses to it, makes clear that an experience conducive to learning may be directly related neither to the level of activity nor to the level of information. Capable students, who had gotten by for years with an unstructured, intuitive, and often emotional approach to problem-solving, remained frustratingly passive. By constructing a series of graduated, interactive exercises, in which students would get pertinent feedback for each answer, I hoped to lead them into an appreciation of structured, logical analysis, with less frustration for all of us. I might add that I chose critical thinking as the subject for my Web project in spite of the fact that the primary focus of my coursework and research is modern literature. I was then, and remain today, skeptical about Web-based courses in a field such as literature, with its emphasis on a creative mixture of analysis, interpretation, and imagination.