Transcript Social Presence in an Online Course

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Social Presence in an Online
Course
Statement of the Problem
Excellence in teaching involves building
community in the classroom
We have experienced a rapid increase in
courses delivered entirely online
How do we develop community in online
courses?
What kind of Educational
Community Do We Want?
Chickering and Gamson (1987) established the
“seven principles for good practive”:
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Contact between students and faculty
Cooperation among students
Active learning
Prompt feedback
Time on task
High expectations
Respect for diverse talents and ways of learning
What Kind of Educational
Community Do We Want?
The National Survey on Student
Engagement (NSSE) found student
behaviors contributing to excellence in
education:
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Contributing to class discussion
Making class presentations
Participating in community-based projects
Working harder than they thought they could
Critical thinking skills (Kuh, 2002)
How Do We Study the Feeling of
Community?
A search of the
literature uncovered
social presence theory,
from the field of
communication in
education
Purpose of Social Presence
The purpose is to understand social presence in
an online course and:
1. To examine students’ perceptions of social
presence in both online and face-to-face sections
of a senior seminar
2. To understand which elements of an online
course are most effective for facilitating social
presence
3. To examine social presence as expressed
through a discussion forum in the online section
Theoretical Background
Teacher Immediacy Behavior
From the field of communication education
comes the concept of teach immediacy
behavior, based on Mehrabian and
Wiener’s early work in psychology (1968).
Immediacy can be defined as the amount
of “perceived physical and/or
psychological closeness between people”
Social Presence
 Immediacy behaviors gave rise to the concept of
social presence, from social psychology (Short,
Williams, and Christie, 1976).
 Social presence is “the degree to which a
person is perceived as a ‘real person’ in
mediated communication” (Gunawardenda,
1995, p.151). The more salient the other person
in the interaction, the higher the degree of social
presence. Immediacy increases social presence
(Gunawardena, 1995).
Social Presence
 Studies of social presence and computer mediated
communication have shown that “despite the low social
bandwidth of the medium, users of computer networks
are able to project their identities whether ‘real’ or
‘pseudo,’ feel the presence of others online, and create
communities with commonly agreed on conventions and
norms…” (Gunawardena, 1995).
 Her own study found that students in computer mediated
conferences were able to “create social presence by
projecting their identities and building online
communities” (Bunawardena, 1995, p.163).
To Increase Social Presence in
Online Classes
1. Mandatory participation in discussion forum
2. Weekly papers synthesizing readings, with
prompt and detailed feedback from the
instructor
3. Group PowerPoint presentations
4. Prompt email responses from instructor to
student difficulties
5. Use of conservational style in communications
from instructor to students – use of names
discussions of personal context, use of
emoticons
Interactive
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Quoting from others’ messages
Referring explicitly to others’ messages
Asking questions
Complimenting, expressing appreciation
Expressing agreement
Social Presence
How can you increase social presence
within your classroom?
Please post a response to this question in
the discussion forum.