It is aimed to examine the interaction experiences of distance education students in e-learning environments where content-integrated social interaction opportunities are offered, and in line with this purpose, the factors affecting students’ level of interaction, appreciation, and participation in interactions were examined. The study group of the research, which was designed as a multiple case study, consists of 80 undergraduate students studying asynchronous activity-oriented distance education and 31 graduate students studying synchronous activity-oriented distance education in one of the major universities in Turkey. In the research, a social e-learning environment that works integrated with e-learning contents and offers students synchronous and asynchronous interaction options with educators and students at the same time was used. Students were expected to study the contents in this e-learning environment and establish social interactions at the same time. After the application, semi-structured interviews were conducted with the students. Descriptive analysis and content analysis were used in the analysis of the data obtained from the e-learning environment and interviews. In the research, asynchronous activity-oriented distance education students showed a study-oriented approach to the content by being involved in interactions in less time and fewer numbers than other students. Related to this, it was seen that content-based factors were one of the factors that most affected their participation and appreciation. In addition to studying the content, the synchronous activity-oriented distance education students actively used the synchronous interaction panel. Regarding this, the factor that most affected their participation and appreciation was the structural and technical features of the system, in which content-integrated social interactions were presented. In the research, in line with these results, the experiences of the students were evaluated and suggestions were made. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2023.
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