Bridging the Social and Teaching Presence Gap in Online Learning

Author(s):  
Bei Zhang

Feelings of disconnection and isolation from teachers and other classmates could have a major negative impact on students' satisfaction and success when learning online. This chapter describes how a variety of Web 2.0 tools have been used to establish and maintain teaching and social presence in online learning. Rather than limiting contact to the virtual world created by well-designed interfaces of learning management system platforms, the creative use of Web conferencing in online teaching not only brings students and teachers together as real human beings but also generates interactions that create more interest and higher engagement. The combined use of synchronous and asynchronous tools, together with mobile devices, has made online learning more flexible, accessible, and credible.

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mei Jiang ◽  
Katie Koo

The Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework posits that a collaborative online teaching and learning process can be achieved through three interdependent dimensions of presence: cognitive presence, social presence, and teaching presence. Emotion is considered an important factor in successful online learning. This study explored non-traditional graduate students’ perceived emotional presence that emerged in participants’ online learning experiences. Based on quantitative and qualitative data from 45 non-traditional graduate students in the field of education, the study showed that participants demonstrated both positive emotional expressions (e.g., enjoyment and happiness) and negative expressions (e.g., frustration and disappointment) in their responses. Emotional presence ratings were found be significantly lower than cognitive, teaching, and social presence ratings. Emotions serving different functions were also identified in responses. Direct affectiveness surfaced where participants showed a strong emotional need to make connections with instructors and peers. Outcome emotions were also identified where participants showed emotional responses in regard to their eventual learning outcome. We also found emotional presence by itself a significant predictor of non-traditional graduate students’ satisfaction with online learning. Implications for research and practice are discussed.


Author(s):  
Sebastián Romualdo Díaz

This chapter explores how the foundational principles of the Community of Inquiry survey can be used to assess and evaluate parallel processes for Knowledge Workers, given that online teaching and learning is quite similar to “online working.” The phenomenon analogous to teaching presence in online learning is a knowledge worker’s ability to create and disseminate knowledge. Communities of Practice provide a measurable phenomenon analogous to social presence. Finally, data-driven decision-making’s use for evaluation, coupled with innovation, serves as a phenomenon parallel to cognitive presence. Together, these three measures, developed in parallel with teaching, social and cognitive presence, provide an effective framework for evaluating online work, which is quite similar to online learning.


2022 ◽  
pp. 288-310
Author(s):  
Fernando Melero-García

This chapter examines students' perceptions of their online learning experience in a healthcare interpreting course as well as their self-efficacy beliefs. The results suggest that teaching presence is essential in online learning, as students indicated that the feedback provided by the instructor were among the most helpful aspects of the course. Additionally, including activities that required learners to interact and collaborate throughout the semester was an effective way of creating social presence. Students specifically perceived that doing peer-evaluations with a classmate on a weekly basis helped them learn and increased their confidence. Regarding self-efficacy beliefs, by the end of the semester students considered that they can meet the requirements established in the National Standards of Practice for Interpreters in Health Care. Overall, a collaborative online environment was successfully created, and learners had a worthwhile learning experience. This study provides meaningful data that can inform future online teaching practices.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 132-146
Author(s):  
Heli Tyrväinen ◽  
Sanna Uotinen ◽  
Leena Valkonen

Abstract Synchronous online learning platforms have been used actively during the COVID-19 period. They have opened possibilities for online learning and interaction, but have also posed new challenges for instructors. This article provides insights into one teacher’s interactions and examines how the instructor presence is expressed in the teachers’ activities in virtual classrooms in higher education. Instructor presence is investigated using the social and teaching presence indicators of the community of inquiry (CoI) framework. Twelve hours of interactions across six online classes were recorded, transcribed, and analysed using content analysis. The findings suggest that indicators of teaching presence dominate interactions in a virtual classroom, but it often involves co-occurrences of indicators of social presence. The typical features of instructor presence included addressing students by name, encouraging them, expressing gratitude for and acknowledging their contributions, describing actions on the dashboard, clarifying and summarising content, and responding to technical concerns. These findings may suggest holistic and pedagogical ways to understand and develop synchronous online interactions and teaching and learning practices. They also have implications for the skills instructors need in virtual classrooms.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-78
Author(s):  
Mohammad Ali Al-Saggaf ◽  
Amierah Syazwaniey Rosli

Community of Inquiry (CoI) is a framework that acknowledges the importance of the environment in shaping the educational experience. According to this framework, teaching, social, and cognitive presences are essential for an optimal online learning experience. The purpose of this study is to identify the level of each of these presences in online classes among Management and Science University (MSU) Bachelor in Education – TESL (Hons). The instrument used for the research tool was adapted from the original CoI framework survey, (Arbaugh et al, 2008). The questionnaire consists of 20 items; six items for teaching presence, another six items for social presence and eight items for the cognitive presence. 263 students who are currently doing the programme participated in the study. The findings concluded that, all three presences are present in high or strong level in online classes among MSU BTESL students with the most substantial presence in online classes among MSU BTESL students being the cognitive presence, followed by the teaching presence and lastly the social presence.


2021 ◽  
Vol 07 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yun Jin Kim

Purpose: The current COVID-19 pandemic is affecting medical institutions in way that may disrupt the learning of medical educations. This study purposed to evaluate students’ satisfaction, online learning environment, and social presence of students’ clinical acupuncture online learning. Methods: The participants of this study (N= 40) were registered for a bachelor of medicine program of Traditional Chinese Medicine in 2018 and enrolled in the clinical acupuncture online training course started from March 2020. A self-evaluated online survey based online learning environment, students’ satisfaction, and social presence were used for data collection. All data are shown as mean (M) ± standard deviation (SD). A p-value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Multiple regression analysis was used to address the effects of learning environment on social presence and student’ s satisfaction with online learning on social presence. Results: The results explained that measure the students’ satisfaction of online learning in the clinical acupuncture and their effect of learning environment and social presence. Learning environment categories related to the motivational needs and the social presence items were significantly correlated p< 0.05. The results of this study advised the social presence explained for the variance in students’ satisfaction in clinical acupuncture online training. Conclusions: These findings support the use of online learning obtain factors that affect the variance of student satisfaction in clinical acupuncture online learning. It can be explained that the primary deficiencies in assigning clinical acupuncture online learning at the undergraduate level fall within the social contexts and interpersonal.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 221258682110070
Author(s):  
Ka Ho Mok ◽  
Weiyan Xiong ◽  
Hamzah Nor Bin Aedy Rahman

The COVID-19 pandemic outbreak has forced online teaching and learning to be the primary instruction format in higher education globally. One of the worrying concerns about online learning is whether this method is effective, specifically when compared to face-to-face classes. This descriptive quantitative study investigates how students in higher education institutions in Hong Kong evaluated their online learning experiences during the pandemic, including the factors influencing their digital learning experiences. By analysing the survey responses from 1,227 university students in Hong Kong, this study found that most of the respondents felt dissatisfied with their online learning experiences and effectiveness. Meanwhile, this study confirms that respondents’ household income level and information technology literacy affected their online learning effectiveness. Moreover, this study highlights the significant contributions of the community of inquiry, which places social presence on the promotion of a whole person development that could not be achieved when relying mainly on online learning. Findings encourage university leaders and instructors to search for multiple course delivery modes to nurture students to become caring leaders with the 21st century skills and knowledge set.


Author(s):  
Montgomery Van Wart ◽  
Anna Ni ◽  
Pamela Medina ◽  
Jesus Canelon ◽  
Melika Kordrostami ◽  
...  

AbstractThis article reports on a large-scale (n = 987), exploratory factor analysis study incorporating various concepts identified in the literature as critical success factors for online learning from the students’ perspective, and then determines their hierarchical significance. Seven factors--Basic Online Modality, Instructional Support, Teaching Presence, Cognitive Presence, Online Social Comfort, Online Interactive Modality, and Social Presence--were identified as significant and reliable. Regression analysis indicates the minimal factors for enrollment in future classes—when students consider convenience and scheduling—were Basic Online Modality, Cognitive Presence, and Online Social Comfort. Students who accepted or embraced online courses on their own merits wanted a minimum of Basic Online Modality, Teaching Presence, Cognitive Presence, Online Social Comfort, and Social Presence. Students, who preferred face-to-face classes and demanded a comparable experience, valued Online Interactive Modality and Instructional Support more highly. Recommendations for online course design, policy, and future research are provided.


2021 ◽  
Vol 49 (8) ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Nam-Hyun Um ◽  
Ahnlee Jang

We delved into the antecedents and consequences of college students' satisfaction with online learning. We proposed the antecedents would be interactions, teaching presence, self-management of learning, and academic self-efficacy, and that the consequence would be intention to continue to use online learning. Participants were 236 college students in South Korea who completed an online survey. Our findings suggest that students' satisfaction with online learning was positively related to the interactions between students and instructor, teaching presence, self-management of learning, and academic self-efficacy. We also found that student satisfaction with online learning positively predicted their intention to continue to use online learning. Thus, our findings in this study provide educators with ways to increase student satisfaction, and add to knowledge about the relationship between students' satisfaction and their intention to take online courses.


Author(s):  
Carol Johnson ◽  
Noha Altowairiki

Transitioning from a face-to-face teaching environment to online teaching requires a shift in paradigm by stakeholders involved (i.e., instructors and students). This chapter provides an extensive literature review to help novice online instructors understand the nature of online teaching presence to help position their students towards more active participation. Premised on the Community of Inquiry framework (Garrison, Anderson & Archer, 2000) and constructivism, we highlight a conceptual framework of four iterative processes for developing online teaching presence: preparations for facilitation, designing the facilitation, implementing the facilitation, and assessing the facilitation. Based on this framework, strategies are articulated for overcoming the challenges of online learning through shared stakeholder responsibility.


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