Regular and Substantive Interaction in Online Teaching
Regular and Substantive Interaction (RSI) is the foundation of effective online learning. Students are more likely to persist, remain engaged, and succeed when instructors maintain an active teaching presence throughout the semester.
Why Regular and Substantive Interaction Matters
RSI helps students:
- stay connected to the course
- understand expectations
- receive timely feedback
- build confidence
- remain engaged throughout the semester
The goal is to make these interactions intentional, predictable, and visible within the LMS. Federal regulations recognize the impact of RSI by requiring instructor-initiated interaction in distance education courses that receive Title IV financial aid.
RSI Regular and Substantive Interactions and Federal Requirements
The U.S. Department of Education requires that all distance education courses for which students may use federal financial aid (e.g. Pell Grant) include regular and substantive interaction between the students and instructor(s).
To qualify for RSI, these actions must also be initiated by the instructor, scheduled regularly, and focused on the academic subject.
Regular and substantive interaction is the distinguishing feature of distance education versus correspondence courses. Regular Interactions are interactions that are scheduled and predictable. Federal guidance identifies five types of substantive interaction.
- Providing Direct Instruction: Live, synchronous teaching or active guidance of the course material.
- Assessing/Providing Feedback: Substantive evaluation of student work.
- Responding to Questions: Actively providing information or answering content-related inquiries (e.g., via office hours or emails).
- Facilitating Group Discussion: Leading and responding to conversations about course content.
- Approved Alternative Activities: Other instructional actions officially approved by your institution's accrediting agency.
| Activity | Counts as RSI? |
|---|---|
| Weekly announcement summarizing the previous week and previewing the next | √ |
| Feedback on assignments | √ |
| Instructor replies that deepen discussion | √ |
| Virtual review session | √ |
| Personalized outreach to struggling students | √ |
| Students only talking to one another with no instructor involvement | x |
| Auto-graded quizzes only | x |
| Publisher content without instructor interaction | x |
Compliance
Department of Education reviews that discover courses with insufficient RSI may result in fines, loss of financial aid, repayment of tuition or reclassification of courses. Students are ineligible to receive financial aid for any course that lacks RSI.
Accreditors Review may result in sanctions from institutional or programmatic accreditors.
How do we include RSI in our courses?
RSI - Regular and Substantive Interactions
R- Regular Interactions are interactions that are scheduled and predictable.
S- Substantive Interactions engage students in teaching, learning and assessment relevant
to the subject matter.
Instructors can practice RSI through activities such as:
- addressing key topics and concepts, class progress, and student questions
- personalizing assignment feedback
- prompting and responding to student work within discussion posts, redirecting discussions and/or summarizing feedback with the forum
- short video lectures followed by Q&A sessions (or live lectures in synchronous courses)
- reminders or updates via announcements
- scheduled virtual office hours (not just at student's request)
- outreach to struggling students
- other instructional activities approved by the institution’s or program’s accrediting agency.
SUNY Online regularly offers RSI webinars. The Office of Digital Learning offers workshops on RSI and teaching excellence – check here for a listing of upcoming professional development opportunities.
The team at Digital Learning can help you self-assess your course and collaborate on ways to increase or customize activities in your course to meet RSI standards.
