Formulated by Michael G. Moore, transactional distance refers to the theory of cognitive space between student and teacher in distance learning.

According to Moore, transactional distance is “a psychological and communication space to be crossed, a space of potential misunderstanding between the inputs of instructor and those of the learner”. [1]

• To maximize learning outcomes, transactional distance needs to be minimized.
• To increase learner autonomy, student-teacher interaction needs to be decreased.

There are three key interactive components that have to work together to shorten the transactional distance and provide for a meaningful learning experience:

• dialog, or interaction between learners and teachers
• structure of the instructional programs
• autonomy, or the degree of self-directedness of the learner. [2]

Reference

[1] Moore, M. G. (1993). Theory of transactional distance. In D. Keegan (Ed.) Theoretical Principles of Distance Education. New York: Routledge.