Rolling With the Flow

COVID-19 created a paradigm shift in higher education (HE), speeding up a process that was already underway and forcing institutions and instructors to develop the competencies necessary to offer effective delivery and resources online. Student reflections on Spring 2020 suggested that institutions were not always successful in their transitions. Students saw gaps in crucial areas, including online instructor presence, social presence for instructors and peers, and instructor immediacy. The purpose of this chapter is to propose best practices for instructional practice and technology in the online virtual education space to increase student engagement, instructor immediacy, and online social presence. HE institutions must embrace or enhance a variety of techniques that will improve the student experience. HE continues its shift toward cutting-edge technology to scale, streamline, and improve student engagement and interaction while creating new ways of establishing instructor presence and immediacy.

Developmental Mathematics: Students’ Predicted Outcome Value of Electronic Communication

This study investigated the predicted outcome value of electronic communication from the viewpoint of developmental mathematics students. Students at a large Texas community college completed a combination of instruments that were administered in three prior studies. Three reasons for using electronic communication that were included in this study were procedural/clarification, personal/social, and efficiency. Results indicated that (a) student-initiated electronic communications conversations were correlated with students’ predicted outcome value of electronic communications; (b) instructor immediacy behaviors via electronic measures was correlated with students’ reasons for electronic communication; (c) instructor immediacy of electronic communication and the reasons for communicating explained 34.3% of the variance in students’ predicted outcome value of electronic communication; (d) procedural/clarification reasons was the largest predictor of predicted outcome value; and (e) the β weight and structure coefficient suggested that personal/social reasons was a possible suppressor. Keywords: developmental mathematics, electronic communication, predicted outcome value, regression, suppressor variable

Instructor Presence

Student isolation and retention rates are persistent issues in online learning. Research has shown that an important component of student performance and satisfaction is instructor presence (Picciano, 2002). Instructor presence includes three elements: 1) Teaching presence, 2) Instructor immediacy, and 3) Social presence (Mandemach, Gonzales, & Garrett, 2006). This chapter will use this definition of instructor presence to outline best pedagogical practices with concrete examples to increase instructor presence in asynchronous online courses. Each section will begin with a definition and research on that construct followed by best practices with concrete examples.

Instructor Immediacy and Authenticity

Online instructors necessitate the implementation of immediacy and authenticity on a continuous basis within an instructional endeavor. Towards more fully understanding the immediacy and authenticity of an instructor's efforts, aspects related to interactive activities, instructor's philosophical beliefs systems, and understanding cognitive vulnerability within an online instructional environment are vitally important to learner success. Further, while developing a community of practice supports the instructor's efforts to engage learners more fully within the instructional success capable within an online instructional environment, while also focusing upon enhancing the talent pool within the course environment. A talent-propelled instructional environment supports the learners while also enhancing the instructor's viability and strength of positive instructional experience.