Fostering Social Presence on Virtual Learning Teams

Social presence is a key factor in student satisfaction and success in online courses and a marker for whether one has an online learning experience that is engaged, vibrant, and connected, or simply perfunctory. An action-oriented research project was conducted to determine how to foster social presence on the virtual learning teams in the Master of Arts programs in the School of Education and Technology at Royal Roads University. The study findings show that in order to support the development of social presence, the commitment and participation of multiple stakeholders is required. The results of this study suggest a common organizational understanding of social presence, clear delineation of student and faculty roles and responsibilities in its development, intentional program design, and a learning management system that specifically lends to interpersonal relationship building must all be present in order to foster the development of social presence.

Does social presence relate to knowledge sharing in virtual learning teams?

The purpose of this study was to identify whether social presence relates to knowledge sharing in virtual learning teams in distance education. The participants in the study were 1355 students engaged in distance education programs. Both split sample and the total sample were used for different analyses. The findings of the study confirmed social presence as a two-dimensional construct, which involves interactive responses and cohesive-affective responses. Only interactive responses were found to relate to knowledge sharing. The results of the study can be used by instructional designers and instructors to design instructional environments that encourage effective social interaction towards knowledge sharing.