Social Presence & Social Learning in ELearning Towards Military Caregivers and Learning Communities of Individuals with Hidden Disabilities

2020 ◽  
Vol 101 (11) ◽  
pp. e25
Author(s):  
Precious Goodson ◽  
Kiffaney Scott
Author(s):  
Alyson Adams ◽  
Gage Jeter

Building community in online EdD programs can be a challenge, and the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of doing so. In this essay, we will situate community building within the larger Community of Inquiry framework and focus on the element of social presence. By understanding more about the various aspects of social presence, faculty who design and deliver online programs can build stronger learning communities with and for their EdD students.


Author(s):  
Aimee L. Whiteside ◽  
Amy Garrett Dikkers

This chapter presents Whiteside’s (2007) Social Presence Model, course examples, and specific strategies and explains how such factors help facilitators maximize interactions in multicultural, online learning environments. The model provides a framework rooted in socio-cultural learning, linguistic nuances, learning communities, prior experiences, and instructor investment. The chapter also illustrates how the Social Presence Model, coupled with examples from a Human Rights Education case study and research-based strategies, can make significant differences in online interactions.


Author(s):  
Antônio Carlos Soares Martins ◽  
Junia de Carvalho Fidelis Braga

The discussions presented herein emerged from two empirical studies in progress:“Online Learning Communities in the Realm of Complexity” and “The Complexity of Learning Environments” in the Graduate Program in Applied Linguistics at Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil. One of the major pillars of both studies centers around Complexity Theory. Initially arising from the natural sciences, Complexity Theory has been gaining ground in the comprehension of human and social sciences. This chapter presents some ideas regarding the role of social presence in both blended and online learning environments, in line with the Community of Inquiry Framework (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2000). Moreover, the authors hope to contribute to a better understanding of patterns that emerge from social interactions as well as of the ideas embedded in learning communities as complex systems.


Online learning communities are created and sustained by a collective sense of we-ness. There are many factors however, that influence the development of the community. Cyber educators may use digitally mediated communications (DMC) that are synchronous or asynchronous to promote social presence and connectedness within the online environment. The identity of the self as well as the identity of the group must be developed in order for knowledge to be co-constructed by the group and for trust to be established. Often times, however, a new self identity emerges as part of the process.


Author(s):  
Stefano Triberti ◽  
Eleonora Brivio ◽  
Carlo Galimberti

Social presence in online learning communities may be defined as the degree to which a learner feels connected with other learners and the teacher/educator, within a computer-mediated context. However, social presence is a broad construct that cannot be reduced to its manifestation in the specific context of distance-learning communities. How can we feel the presence of others? And, in virtue of what such a sensation may establish in our consciousness when others are actually not present in the physical environment we are in? This chapter includes a review of the main theoretical proposals to understand social presence, along with their guidelines to promote it, specific instruments and possible criticalities. Then, the different theories on social presence are resumed and integrated, in order to provide practical design guidelines open to the new technologies that may constitute innovative resources for the computer-mediated learning tools of the future (virtual reality, virtual worlds, augmented reality, and ambient intelligence).


2014 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Kear ◽  
Frances Chetwynd ◽  
Helen Jefferis

Online communication is increasingly used in education, but it is not without problems. One significant difficulty is a lack of social presence. Social presence relates to the need for users of technology-based communication to perceive each other as real people. Low social presence can be a particular issue in text-based, asynchronous systems such as discussion forums, leading to feelings of impersonality and disengagement from online learning. Features of online communication systems have the potential to increase social presence. One possibility, advocated in the literature on online learning, is the use of personal profiles and photos to help participants to learn something about each other and feel more connected. This paper discusses the question: To what extent do personal profiles enhance social presence in online learning communities? It presents research findings from two studies which investigated learners’ use and perceptions of personal profiles in online forums. The findings suggest that personal profiles and photos help some online learners to feel in touch with each other. Other learners, however, do not feel the need for these facilities, have privacy concerns or prefer to focus on the forum postings.Keywords: personal profile; online community; learning community; social presence; distance learning(Published: 7 August 2014)Citation: Research in Learning Technology 2014, 22: 19710 -http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/rlt.v22.19710


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nevine Mahmoud Fayek El Souefi

AbstractThe abrupt shift to full online learning due to COVID-19, displaced students and teachers, created multiple barriers in teaching and learning, and caused some instructors not being able to build and maintain an online learning community. This situation resulted in students’ detachment from their instructor and peers causing lack of motivation and increase of failure chances. First the paper explores the challenges and opportunities of building and online learning community highlighting the needs, and reviewes some past frameworks in the field. Second, a framework is proposed that identifies four factors that help the growth of online learning communities. Those facots are; teacher presence, social presence, cognitive presence and students’ emotional engagement. Further the framework  specifies type of actions and activities that teachers/instructors should be adopting throughout the course.  The paper adds to the growing knowledge on Coronavirus effects on the educational sector and highlights the need for the efficeint use of technology in education.


Author(s):  
Joseph Corneli ◽  
Alexander Mikroyannidis

Learning online has significantly evolved over the past decade due to the emergence of Web 2.0 and 3.0 technologies that facilitate social learning in adaptive online environments. The open content movement and the associated techniques of crowdsourcing (i.e. assimilating several small contributions into resources of high quality) have further influenced education on the Web. This chapter investigates the concept of crowdsourcing in education through an analysis of case studies dealing with two open online learning communities, Peer 2 Peer University, and PlanetMath.org. The case studies proceed via an analysis of the various roles played by the individuals involved in each organization. The outcomes of this analysis are used to extract general recommendations for building online communities and applying crowdsourcing techniques in educational contexts.


Author(s):  
David John Lemay ◽  
Tenzin Doleck

This paper presents a social learning network analysis of Twitter during the 2020 global shutdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Research concerning online learning environments is focused on the reproduction of conventional teaching arrangements, whereas social media technologies afford new channels for the dissemination of information and sharing of knowledge and expertise. We examine Twitter feed around the hashtags #onlinelearning and #onlineteaching during the global shutdown to examine the spontaneous development of online learning communities. We find relatively small and ephemeral communities on the two topics. Most users make spontaneous contributions to the discussion but do not maintain a presence in the Twitter discourse. Optimizing the social learning network, we find many potential efficiencies to be gained through more proactive efforts to connect knowledge seekers and knowledge disseminators. Considerations and prospects for supporting online informal social learning networks are discussed.


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