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Interaction is a critical component of distance education and involves the transfer of information between the learner and content, learner and learner, or learner and instructor (Moore, 1989). Current distance education literature has examined the role of interaction, specifically learner-learner interaction, in learning and discussion design to enhance achievement. The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of restricted and traditional discussion boards on critical thinking and learning in a graduate-level online distance education course. Findings indicated improved critical thinking in the quality and preparation strategies of initial discussion board postings when participants' views of peer responses to discussion board questions were restricted until a predetermined date. Although the overall quality of subsequent postings was not affected, content analysis revealed a significant increase in discourse and revised opinions in the restricted format.
INTRODUCTION
Whether completing a prompt in a programmed instruction unit (Markle, 1969), answering an inserted question (Rothkopf, 1970), or interacting with other students and the instructor in an online discussion (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2000) interaction is considered a critical component of the learning process (Bernard et al., 2009). Moore (1989) identified three types of interactions in distance education: learner-content, learnerinstructor, and learner-learner. Learnercontent interaction is between the learner and the instructional materials. This form of interaction can occur as the learner reads a textbook, views a recorded lecture, or interacts with an instructional simulation. Holmberg (1989) and Keegan (1996) both proposed frameworks for structuring learner-content interactions that created a dialog between the learner and the subject-matter expert (i.e., the content) even though the materials were created by the instructor in one time frame and the student interacted in another time frame. Learner-instructor interactions occur between the learner and the instructor during face-toface meetings, telephone or Skype conversations, posting in a discussion forum, or through e-mail correspondence. Learner-learner interaction is the interaction between one learner and other learners occurring in a synchronous or asynchronous environment. This final form of interaction is typically facilitated through the use of discussion forums within an asynchronous distance education environment and is a key component of the community of inquiry (Col) framework (Garrison et al., 2000). The equivalency theorem as proposed by Anderson (2003) suggests that deep and meaningful learning will occur as long...