Definition: Interactivity is an over-used word that, in the technological domain, has come to mean anything from the ability of the user to move to the next Web page by clicking a link to something close to artificial intelligence on the part of a Web-based environment. In the pedagogic domain it is used in a more commonly understood but fundamentally undefined fashion.
We therefore break interactivity down into two components:
This refers to the extent to which the computer responds to cues supplied by the user and to which the computer demands that such cues be provided. Interactivity is heightened by several factors such as the unpredictability and variety of computer responses and the degree to which the user is forced to think about his or her own responses.
This refers to the extent which the resource mediates an interactive form of learning, e.g. group activities, socratic dialogues, or role playing.
Another aspect of pedagogic resources is adaptivity. A resource is adaptive if it changes its behavior in response the the history and/or preferences of the user. In a rough sense, the process of adapting is the process of changing global states, where as interaction refers to the cues and responses that take place within a given state.