Intera o no componente on-line de cursos semipresenciais: a vis o dos participantes / Interaction in the online component in hybrid courses: the participants’ perception

This article aims at presenting the findings collected from a dissertation that has aimed at investigating the participants′ perception (teachers and students) in a hybrid course about its online interaction. In its theoretical basis, issues about on-line distance education as well as interaction have been drawn upon, including face to face and distance interaction, types of online distance interaction, on-line teacher-student interaction, online student-student interaction and the relationship between face to face and online components in hybrid courses. In order to gather data findings, several ethnographic tools research were used such as questionnaires, interviews, observations, online message logs, emails logs, teachers and researcher′s diaries. On adopting a qualitative data analysis, the aims were to investigate, from the participants′ point of view, favourable aspects of online interaction, difficulties in online interaction and the relationship between face to face interaction and online component in hybrid courses. It was observed that students have noticed more favourable aspects of online interaction than teachers and teachers have mentioned more difficulties in online interaction than students. The findings reinforce the importance of complementariness between face to face component and online interaction in hybrid courses.