Using the Internet, a student can ask a question of a faculty member or a teaching assistant anytime or anywhere, and often get a real-time response. Groups of students can come together for a live, real-time discussion group relating to the course. In fact, virtually all of the interactions that are possible in a live classroom environment are replicable in the Internet environment. In fact, in some ways, the interactivity is more powerful. Students can interact with other students via threaded interaction even if they cannot be available at precisely the same time.
Students can interact with students who are geographically remote.
Neither of these is possible in a traditional classroom environment. The existing issues do not relate to whether the technology is capable of supporting a high level of interaction. The key issues are, first, that vendors must understand how critical it is to enable meaningful interactions within their systems, and second, that any teachers who are using systems learn to use them to foster interaction. These issues require vendors to think differently about what they are building and teachers to think differently about how they teach. Both of those are possible.