Content interaction in online university courses: the start@unito project

The growing number of online courses offered by many universities worldwide is reshaping the traditional delivery of knowledge. This study tries to combine e-learning and the learning principles of language and linguistics. Drawing on the experience of the start@unito project at the University of Torino, which this year also offers language and linguistics courses, we tackle one of the main problems of online education, namely that of interaction. This study tries to combine e-learning and the learning principles of language and linguistics, focusing on the three types of interaction proposed by Moore (1989): learner-learner, learner-instructor, learner-content interactions. Specifically, we concentrate on the various ways in which learners may interact with the content in asynchronous untutored online university courses. Starting from the assumption that all the language and linguistics courses need a great deal of interaction, in order to be beneficial to students, it emerges that the application of pedagogical approaches and a careful instructional design of the courses may facilitate a more effective interaction with the content of the object of study.