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Teacher Presence: Using Introductory Videos in Online and Hybrid Courses

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Abstract

Students report that they feel somewhat disconnected from a course when they take a course online or when Web-supported instruction replaces the face-to-face class meetings. The challenge in designing Web-supported courses in any discipline is for instructors to establish their “teaching presence” with their students.

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... The purpose and structure of both introductory videos were similar. As discussed by Jones, Naugle and Kollof (2008a), the purpose of the video was to introduce the instructors and each of their courses. Both videos provided information regarding course management issues, instructor expectations, and course requirements. ...
... According to Jones, Naugle and Kollof (2008a), the overall results indicated that the introductory video could help the process of establishing teaching presence in both hybrid and fully online instructional environments. Students in both courses gave high ratings to the instructional value of the introductory video and the "opportunity to get to know the instructor before the beginning of class" (p. 7). ...
... For example, students in the hybrid course had greater preferences for narrated Power Point slide presentations as a way of delivering educational content, while the online student group expressed greater preference for asynchronous video and text-based learning material. Jones, Naugle and Kollof (2008a) concluded that there are many challenges regarding the development of teaching presence in online courses and emphasized that this process is especially demanding in primarily text-based online environments. ...
Article
This study presents and discusses findings regarding the benefits of video delivery in online instruction. Specifically, the study addresses whether the implementation of a short asynchronous introductory video in a primarily text-based online course has an effect on students’ perception of teaching presence. In addition, the second aim of this study is to test whether an asynchronous introductory video can enhance student’s course engagement and performance. Finally, the study seeks answer if there is an interrelationship between teaching presence, student’s engagement and student’s performance. This study utilizes a sequential explanatory mixed methods research design. The study also includes elements of the experimental method as part of the educational intervention. Participants in this study were undergraduate students (N=87) enrolled in an online course in the domain of entomology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, during the spring semester 2010. The quantitative analysis relies on descriptive statistics, t-tests, and SEM-multiple course comparison, while qualitative analysis uses an in-vivo coding approach. The study results indicate that announcement delivery method has a limited impact effect on students’ perception of teaching presence. Video based announcement is a statistically significant determinant only for one aspect of teaching presence, which is instructors’ facilitation role in the online course. In addition, the results show that video delivery can make virtual learning more personalized, by emphasizing the interaction between students and their instructor. Finally, the research shows that students’ study habits are critical for the online learning engagement and overall coursework. Advisor: Allen Steckelberg
... The introductory student video may include personal information (students' names, backgrounds, hobbies) and academic goals, such as their expectations about the course. These videos help students form a relationship with the instructor and positively impact their progress during the course, increasing instructors' and students' social presence and sense of online community and interaction (Bialowas & Steimel, 2019;Jones et al., 2008;Martin et al., 2018;Seckman, 2018). ...
... The findings provide evidence that instructors favor interactive and collaborative courses, recommend providing constant feedback, and structure and organize class activities allowing students to reflect on the advances in their learning. The literature corroborates such evidence (Bialowas & Steimel, 2019;Jones et al., 2008;Kauffman, 2015;Martin et al., 2018;Scagnoli et al., 2019;Seckman, 2018). Most instructors agreed that interactive and video lessons increase engagement and motivation when integrating personal voice and video (Bialowas & Steimel, 2019;Scagnoli et al., 2019). ...
Article
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By the end of 2019, the World Health Organization was informed about the first unknown pneumonia cases, later labeled the COVID‐19 global pandemic. Based on Mezirow's transformative learning theory, COVID‐19 has been the trigger event that challenged adult learners' values, beliefs, and expectations in higher educational institutions. The study sought to identify best practices across American higher education institutions (HEIs) to adapt their teaching approach to the online environment. It answered the question, “What are the best practices for higher education instructors to adapt their teaching approach to online environments?” This study uses a systematic literature review and an online survey for data collection across HEIs in the United States. The web‐based questionnaire includes fixed‐choice, closed‐ended, and open‐ended questions in four sections: demographic information, attitudes about online education, online teaching and learning strategies, and challenges. The study follows ethical procedures, thematic analysis, and discussion of the findings in the context of existing literature to outline best practices in online higher education during the COVID‐19 pandemic.
... Using multimedia in online courses has been shown to have a positive impact on education (e.g., Kostolanský et al., 2019) [32] and increase student engagement and learning (e.g., [14]. King (2014) [33] found, for example, that mini-videos and screen-casting that make instructors more visible had pedagogical benefits, and video-based instructor introductions can help form relationships with instructors, resulting in more positive course evaluations (Jones et al., 2008) [34]. Mobile and digital technologies can offer considerable benefits and affordances within learning environments, such as building and supporting creative, collaborative, critical, and communicative capacities (Cobcroft et al., 2006) [35]. ...
... Using multimedia in online courses has been shown to have a positive impact on education (e.g., Kostolanský et al., 2019) [32] and increase student engagement and learning (e.g., [14]. King (2014) [33] found, for example, that mini-videos and screen-casting that make instructors more visible had pedagogical benefits, and video-based instructor introductions can help form relationships with instructors, resulting in more positive course evaluations (Jones et al., 2008) [34]. Mobile and digital technologies can offer considerable benefits and affordances within learning environments, such as building and supporting creative, collaborative, critical, and communicative capacities (Cobcroft et al., 2006) [35]. ...
Article
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The COVID-19 outbreak in late 2019 required a complete shift to online learning across all educational institutions, including universities. The rapid transition to online learning globally meant that many educators were suddenly tasked with adapting their classroom-based pedagogy to the online space. While this was undoubtedly challenging for teachers and students, it also opened up possibilities for reimagining the delivery of content, along with creating increased access for students who had barriers for studying remotely before the impact of COVID-19. The study discussed in this paper examines the experiences of students studying at a regional Australian university that already offered online courses, and whose instructors were already using a diverse range of online delivery tools. Specifically, the study sought to investigate how instructors used interactive strategies to promote student engagement, and how the interaction between learner and content influences student engagement. With research showing that online students typically have higher attrition rates than their on-campus counterparts, engagement has been identified as an important factor in online learning. Online interaction in particular is considered to be instrumental in influencing student engagement and positively impacting student satisfaction, persistence, and academic performance. Data collected from interviews conducted with two different cohorts of students, studying two different courses (mathematics education and Chinese language) at the same university, demonstrated ways instructors utilised interactive online pedagogies to engage students with potentially challenging course content. The study has implications for online educators who are looking for ways to adapt their on-campus courses to online delivery, with a focus on engaging and maintaining online students’ interest and ongoing participation in their courses.
... Previous literature discussed various types of facilitation strategies in an online setting, such as instructor's feedback to students' assignments (Badiee & Kaufman, 2014;Thiele, 2003), responses to students' questions (Sheridan & Kelly, 2010), announcements (Ko & Rossen, 2010), questionings (Wang, 2014), and video-based course introduction (Jones, Naugle & Kolloff, 2008). Few studies have looked at students' perception of facilitation strategies in online environments and outcomes (Martin, Wang & Sadaf, 2018;Shea, Li, & Pickett, 2006;Hew, 2015). ...
... Ko and Rossen (2010) suggested strategies for instructors to design and facilitate the discussions that include narrowing down topics, starting topic threads, responding to discussion posts, and mentioning student names. Jones et al. (2008) found that video-based instructor introduction assisted in connecting with the students from the start of the course which contributed to students' growth in the course. Researchers suggest that students demonstrate high levels of cognitive presence in discussions facilitated by well-structured discussions and discussion questions (Oh & Kim, 2016;Richardson, Sadaf & Ertmer, 2012;Sadaf & Olesova, 2017). ...
Article
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Online course facilitation is critical to the success of online courses. Instructors use various facilitation strategies in online courses to engage students. One hundred instructors were surveyed on their perception of helpfulness of twelve different facilitation strategies used in online courses to enhance instructor presence, instructor connection, engagement and learning. Instructors’ timely response to questions and instructors’ timely feedback on assignments/projects were rated the highest in three of four constructs (instructor presence, engagement and learning). For instructor connection, ability to contact the instructor in multiple ways was rated the highest. Interactive visual syllabi of the course was rated the lowest in all four constructs. In the open-ended comments, group projects and synchronous sessions were rated helpful. Descriptive statistics for each of the construct by gender, delivery method, course level taught are presented. Significant differences were found between gender but analysis of variance failed to detect differences between primary delivery method or course level taught.
... Previous research has found that when students watched an introduction video, students were more positive in the course evaluations and also contributed more to the discussion boards. Researchers, Jones et al. (2008) found that students benefited from the introduction video as it helped form a relationship with the instructor right from the start of the course which contributed to their progress in the course. ...
... Video based Introduction was found to help in building instructor connection. This finding support Jones et al. (2008) study that found that students benefited from the introduction video as it helped form a relationship with the instructor from the start of the course. These results indicate the importance of using video based introductions to improve perceived closeness between the students and instructor that may lead to better academic achievement. ...
... Students believe that videos enhance their engagement and offer extra learning opportunities while they increase motivation (Evans & Cordova, 2015). Interaction with videos add teaching presence and social presence to the courses (Hughes, 2009;Jones, Naugle, & Kolloff, 2008;Reisetter & Boris, 2004), which increases engagement through the connection they feel with the instructor shown as a real person in class (Jones et al., 2008;Scagnoli & Packard, 2011). ...
... Students believe that videos enhance their engagement and offer extra learning opportunities while they increase motivation (Evans & Cordova, 2015). Interaction with videos add teaching presence and social presence to the courses (Hughes, 2009;Jones, Naugle, & Kolloff, 2008;Reisetter & Boris, 2004), which increases engagement through the connection they feel with the instructor shown as a real person in class (Jones et al., 2008;Scagnoli & Packard, 2011). ...
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Video lectures (VL), considered an effective means for delivering course content and infusing teaching presence in the virtual environment, have become very popular in education. The purpose of this study was to investigate online student experiences with VL focusing on their opinion of usefulness of VL, their satisfaction with them and their perception of learning derived from them. Our findings show that students' satisfaction with VL has a strong relationship with positive overall learning experience and perception of impact of video on learning. Furthermore, VL can enhance a feeling of engagement with content because of learners' control of the media and instructors' presence. The findings also alert us on the importance of careful planning and balanced integration of VL with other course materials. This provides important information on the effectiveness of video‐lectures in college teaching and learning and implications for practice in online course design.
... Free AR platforms allow teachers to meet the needs of ommunities of colour to create stories connected with location-triggered applications to promote marginalised populations' cultural learning and social heritage. 39,40 AR can be used for discoverybased learning to immerse oneself in real-world historical places, increasing the understanding of different cultures, traditions and languages. 41,42 By using AR glasses and a wearable computer, AR can be a portable way of learning about historical places. ...
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The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 forced educational institutions to rapidly adopt different technologies for learning purposes. Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are technologies that can be used to adapt educational practices to the adult learning field and create a more inclusive online environment. AR allows interaction with the surrounding environment by superimposing images into real scenarios. VR technologies allow users to fully immerse and interact with virtual environments. Both technologies can be an enabler element that opens opportunities for improving adult learners’ experience. This paper provides an overview of AR and VR technologies and their practical applications in the field of adult education.
... Materials such as video introductions improve student perceptions of instructors as human. Jones et al. (2008) demonstrated how instructor-created video introductions help to create positive relationships between instructors and students early in a course, and humanise the instructor in distance education courses. Course orientations serve the essential function of situating students within the learning requirements and activities, and favourably influence student perceptions of the course. ...
Article
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Connecting with students has been shown to increase motivation, satisfaction, and perceived learning while decreasing anxiety. Connecting with students in an online or distance education environment can prove difficult. This study examined perceptions of higher education students who were enrolled in various modalities (e.g., hybrid, online asynchronous, and synchronous) during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States of America. The study found that a high perception of instructor connectedness in the asynchronous classes resulted in lower anxiety levels for students. Four themes emerged from the results: the importance of instructor empathy; sociability; feedback; and course organisation. These helped students to connect to their instructor—thus reducing anxiety.
... One video-integration approach is the introductory or bio video as an online course welcome from the instructor. Jones, Naugle and Kolloff (2008) have identified several hurdles to creating teacher presence, and recommend that instructors create an introductory video to form a relationship with their students early on. Reisetter, Lapointe and Korcuska (2007, p. 77) note that instructors' facial expressions and interaction are a missing element from many online courses, and that students prefer online classes with instructor-generated videos. ...
Article
While instructors and students generally value the integration of videos in the online classroom, there are a number of practical considerations that may mediate the utility of videos as a teaching and learning tool. The current survey examines faculty and student perceptions of videos in the online classroom with an emphasis on the practical factors that influence video integration. Results indicate differences in faculty and student acceptance and endorsements of videos for content presentation compared to assignment feedback. Faculty desire more opportunities to interact with their students (i.e., video-based discussions, video-conferencing, and student-generated videos) and highlighted efficiency as a key consideration. Students emphasized a desire for multiple opportunities to engage with course material; while students value text-based resources, they also want to have options to learn and interact via video and audio. Key to student recommendations is an awareness of the time involved to engage with online videos. Discussion highlights practical approaches to maximize the value and utility of videos in the online classroom.
... Materials such as video introductions improve student perceptions of instructors as human. Jones et al. (2008) demonstrated how instructor-created video introductions help to create positive relationships between instructors and students early in a course, and humanise the instructor in distance education courses. Course orientations serve the essential function of situating students within the learning requirements and activities, and favourably influence student perceptions of the course. ...
Article
Full-text available
Connecting with students has been shown to increase motivation, satisfaction, and perceived learning while decreasing anxiety. Connecting with students in an online or distance education environment can prove difficult. This study examined perceptions of higher education students who were enrolled in various modalities (e.g., hybrid, online asynchronous, and synchronous) during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States of America. The study found that a high perception of instructor connectedness in the asynchronous classes resulted in lower anxiety levels for students. Four themes emerged from the results: the importance of instructor empathy; sociability; feedback; and course organisation. These helped students to connect to their instructor-thus reducing anxiety.
... Whilst this approach is self-directed in nature and students may only access the instructional videos from the lecturer as they need them, it can still provide guidance and a teaching presence in the learning environment. 110 ...
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In light of the increasing number of animal law units being offered by Australian law schools, it is timely to critically reflect upon the objectives of such units. What is it that we seek to achieve when we teach animal law to law students? Is it limited to facilitating a thorough understanding of the law relating to animals? Or are we trying to change the way our students see the world, to inspire them to strive to reform the relationship between animals and the law, and to ultimately modify the relationship between animals and humans? This article examines the desirability and feasibility of teaching animal law to law students with the explicit objective of promoting personal, community and legal transformation, drawing upon the experiences of one of the authors in teaching conservation principles to school children in Africa.
... However, Berge (1995) suggests many strategies that may help instructors, such as video-based instructor introductions, modeling discussion behaviors, and improving online etiquette. Jones, Naugle, and Kolloff (2008) show how introduction videos help students build a relationship with their instructors from the start of the course, which contributes to their progress. Even though social roles significantly affect students' success, all previous studies have focused on the social role inside traditional classes. ...
Article
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Instructors use various strategies to facilitate learning and actively engage students in online courses. In this study, we examined students' perception of the helpfulness of some different facilitation strategies used by instructors to establish instructors' presence, instructors' connection, engagement, and learning in online classrooms. 102 undergraduate students taking online courses due to COVID-19 pandemic at an English language institute at a Saudi university, responded to the web survey. Among the facilitation strategies, instructors being present in the discussion forum rated the highest in two constructs (instructors' presence and students' engagement). While video-based instructor introduction rated the highest for instructors' connectedness. In addition, students found video-based course orientation was the most effective strategy to enhance online learning. Analysis of variance used to detect differences between gender, status, and age on all four constructs measured. No statistically significant differences were noticed for any one of the four latent constructs concerning discipline for the level of education and age. However, there was a significant difference between young and adult learners. Adult students had a stronger perception of using facilitation strategies to establish and enhance the four constructs than young students had.
... Another area where we spent particular time was in the introductory or 'hook' videos, recorded as a piece to camera, which were written to tell a story to gain attention, show relevance and pose a challenge or questionmethods shown to increase learning and engagement. The ability for students to see and hear teaching staff in the video also strongly enhances the sense of social and teaching presence (Jones et al., 2008), which we know students appreciate, and again puts staff front and center in the teaching environment. ...
Conference Paper
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The Business School is one of the UK’s top ranked business schools, renowned for its expertise in Finance in particular, and its location in the heart of London. The School has been steadily expanding for more than a decade but was reaching the limits of its physical campus space. However, there remained the desire to develop innovative learning, expand and reach new audiences. Developing a new distance program, that built on the School’s existing reputation for Finance, showcased its world-class faculty and had a global reach was identified as the ideal opportunity to explore a new strategic direction. We built a fully online program with a high rate of engagement, satisfaction and achievement. Its enrolment continues to grow, increasing our international diversity. Online learning is now embedded as a core part of the School’s strategy and is seen as key to future expansion. Beyond this, our organisation cultivated far more expertise and best practice to draw on in a time of crisis than if we had outsourced. This shows the high impact an excellent learning design can make to the culture and capacity of an organisation.
... Other studies, especially those on massively open online courses (MOOCs), have found that a significant number of students primarily watch only videos, while skipping over assessment problems and other interactive course components [1,15]. Students report that the videos make them feel more engaged in the course and motivate them [10], and that they also feel more connected to the instructor [13,26]. Additionally, students perceive that the videos help them learn [27]. ...
... Audio-visual introductions where students not only read text but also see and hear each other help overcome any initial inhibitions they might have. Jones et al. (2008) found that students benefited from the introduction video as it helped form a relationship with the instructor and other students from the beginning of the course. Mittleman et al. (2000) suggested using an informal break for online team meetings, when all parties can share casual talks and social jokes with the assistance of ICT. ...
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This study examines factors related to student self-efficacy beliefs in on-line groupwork. Participants in this study were 204 graduate students taking an online graduate-level course from a public university in the Southeast United States of America. Two-level hierarchical linear models were used to examine predictors of the students’ self-efficacy. Three student-level variables were found to be related to groupwork self-efficacy: individual’s willingness to handle groupwork challenge, trust relationship, and leadership influence. At the group level, the group’s willingness to handle groupwork challenge was positively related to individual student’s groupwork self-efficacy. Discussions of the findings suggest that leadership is important for groupwork. Instructors of online courses are recommended to design high-quality group projects that are purposeful, meaningful, challenging, and engaging. Communications between group members are also recommended to build trust. Implications of the findings to online learning and instruction as well as directions for future research are presented.
... Although we tried to keep the course as light on bandwidth as possible, we were influenced by studies showing that even short videos are effective at establishing the instructor's teaching presence with students (Jones, Naugle & Kolloff, 2008;Pan et al., 2012), and could potentially contribute to all three types of presences in Garrison's model (Garrison & Arbaugh, 2007). We therefore experimented in our first MOOC with a short introductory video featuring the two AuthorAID team members in charge of the course, in order to "humanise" their online interaction with the course participants. ...
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We report on an online course in research writing offered in a massive open online course (MOOC) format for developing country researchers. The concepts of cognitive presence, teacher presence, and social presence informed the design of the course, with a philosophy of strong social interaction supported by guest facilitators. The course was developed with low-bandwidth elements and hosted on a Moodle site. It was offered twice as a MOOC and 2830 learners from more than 90 countries, mainly in the developing world, took part. The average completion rate was 53%. Female learners and learners who were active in the forums were more likely to complete the course. Our MOOC approach may be a useful model for continuing professional development training in the developing world.
... Many of the student-participants in this study were more positive about the use of online technologies in their courses than their lecturers, though some had concerns about the use of digital technology, especially the perceived lack of immediacy felt in online activities. This problem can sometimes be solved through application of synchronous teaching and learning tools such as video or audio conferencing sessions (e.g., Blackboard's Collaborate or Adobe Connect) but the lack of an online presence is recognised by both online teachers and online students as an area of concern (Anderson et al., 2001;Jones, Naugle, and Kolloff, 2008;Lehman and Conceição, 2010;Northcote, 2010;Picciano, 2002;Richardson and Swan, 2003;Warwick et al., 2010). This aspect presents some challenges for online course designers and, especially in the context of this study, CM students who, due to their diversity, frequently require flexible enrolment in their courses. ...
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