This paper explores strategies to design, implement and evaluate the use of innovative interfaces and workflows that provide students with dynamic, interactive portal facilities to learn, to think critically and to undertake productive problem solving tasks and discussions with peers and instructors in supportive, constructive online education environments.

It provides a critique of current education models and instructional techniques to improve exposure, participation and engagement by students in online courses. These aspects are explored through a pilot study conducted at TexasA&MUniversityto develop an online instructional interface for 106 currently offered 'Writing Intensive" courses to 3,000 students across the institution.

From the findings, the paper provides a strategy to 1) increase participation in technology, interpersonal and content interactions; 2) develop collaborative skills for building life-long citizenship; and 3) establish an evaluative model to assess the degree of intellectual interaction using online tools to process and deliver meaningful and timely diagnostic information for instructors.