No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.
Students' Perceptions of Teaching and Social Presence: A Comparative Analysis of Face-to-Face and Online Learning Environments
Abstract
Online learning has grown dramatically over the past few years and has become an integral part of most of the higher education institutions' overall strategy. While this explosive growth has created exciting opportunities for both institutions and students, high dropout rates in online learning environments continues to be a major concern for all institutions. Research has identified lack of social and teacher presence in online courses as major factors leading to student attrition. While it is easy to establish these presences in traditional classrooms, developing them in an online environment could be challenging due to absence of any face-to-face contact. The purpose of this preliminary study is to compare students' perceptions of social and teacher presences in online and traditional classroom. Thirty-four students enrolled in an online section and 29 students enrolled in a face-to-face section of an undergraduate course participated in the study. The results indicate that students' perceived stronger teacher and social presences in the online section compared to the face-to-face section. Implications of these results for practice and research are discussed.
... Meanwhile, a number of studies reported on the efficacy of online courses or programs with doubtful issues lurking. A list of issues, including withdrawal, loneliness, boredom, and dissatisfaction, has been identified to affect the quality of online courses (Bowers & Kumar, 2015;Tirrell & Quick, 2012). Social interaction among students, which has been identified as social presence (Garrison et al., 1999;Moore, 1989;Rovai & Downey, 2010;Spiro, 2011), is an essential element that sustains the efficacy of virtual learning approach. ...
... This purpose is in line with the aims stipulated in the Malaysia Critical Agenda Project, the National e-Learning Policy, the Malaysia Government Transformation Plan (MMOHE, 2017), and the demands of 21st century education in the era of fourth industrial revolution where education is a non-stop process and should be more open. Additionally, this study provides guidance for online instructors and learners to improve the quality of online interaction and to establish more engagement, so as to gradually reduce the rate of drop-outs among online learners (Bowers & Kumar, 2015). ...
... The LMS is not a bank of learning materials and the instructors should comply to the Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) standard that does not place heavy emphasis on pedagogical aspect (Rustici Software, 2016). As a result, the aforementioned issues of isolation, loneliness, boredom, dissatisfaction, and withdrawal of courses (Bowers & Kumar, 2015;Tirrell & Quick, 2012) may eventually be hindered. ...
The last Open Praxis issue in 2020 includes nine research papers and one book review. It also includes the list of reviewers who have collaborated in reviewing the papers submitted to Open Praxis volume 12.
... Meanwhile, a number of studies reported on the efficacy of online courses or programs with doubtful issues lurking. A list of issues, including withdrawal, loneliness, boredom, and dissatisfaction, has been identified to affect the quality of online courses (Bowers & Kumar, 2015;Tirrell & Quick, 2012). Social interaction among students, which has been identified as social presence (Garrison et al., 1999;Moore, 1989;Rovai & Downey, 2010;Spiro, 2011), is an essential element that sustains the efficacy of virtual learning approach. ...
... This purpose is in line with the aims stipulated in the Malaysia Critical Agenda Project, the National e-Learning Policy, the Malaysia Government Transformation Plan (MMOHE, 2017), and the demands of 21st century education in the era of fourth industrial revolution where education is a non-stop process and should be more open. Additionally, this study provides guidance for online instructors and learners to improve the quality of online interaction and to establish more engagement, so as to gradually reduce the rate of drop-outs among online learners (Bowers & Kumar, 2015). ...
... The LMS is not a bank of learning materials and the instructors should comply to the Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) standard that does not place heavy emphasis on pedagogical aspect (Rustici Software, 2016). As a result, the aforementioned issues of isolation, loneliness, boredom, dissatisfaction, and withdrawal of courses (Bowers & Kumar, 2015;Tirrell & Quick, 2012) may eventually be hindered. ...
Students’ satisfaction plays a vital role in ensuring effective online learning. This study investigated the association between social presence and students’ satisfaction toward online discussions in Learning Management System (LMS) platform conducted at a private university in Malaysia. Both correlation and two-step hierarchical linear regression were performed to analyze the online survey data. The instruments used to measure the summated scores of social presence and satisfaction were Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework and satisfaction scale, respectively. The results revealed that the correlation between both variables was significantly positive. Students who declared relatively high level of satisfaction were more likely to report high level of interaction with their peers in online conversation and high level of social presence. Essentially, social presence seemed to contribute the most in predicting the level of course satisfaction amongst the students.
... A pesar de que hay estudios que parecen indicar unas tasas de abandono superiores en este tipo de opciones de enseñanza (Boston et al., 2011;Bowers y Kumar, 2015), también hay estudios que confirman que los estudiantes reciben bien las propuestas docentes que combinan sesiones presenciales con trabajo no presencial (Plota y Karalis, 2019). La enseñanza combinada, entendida como un método que "combines face-to-face instruction with computer-mediated instruction" (Graham, 2006, p. 5), es una de las opciones de docencia semipresencial más extendida. ...
... No es suficiente con que el docente se forme y tenga una excelente predisposición: se hace necesaria una labor de acompañamiento constante. Cuando esto sucede y los docentes planifican con atención la interacción de los estudiantes con el contenido, el propio equipo docente y otros compañeros, los estudiantes pueden tener incluso mayor interacción y la participación puede estar mejor distribuida que en la docencia presencial al emplear diferentes recursos síncronos y asíncronos para conversar y comunicar (Bowers y Kumar, 2015;Northrup, 2002). Young (2006) observa en su estudio que la docencia no presencial es eficaz cuando los profesores "remain visibly and actively involved in the learning, maybe even to a greater dregree than in the traditional classroom" (p. ...
... A la hora de diseñar un curso o una asignatura semipresencial o no presencial, habría que tener presente tanto las ventajas como los inconvenientes manifestados por los estudiantes (Wang et al., 2019). Una de las ventajas más aclamadas de los formatos no presenciales es la flexibilidad que pueden ofrecer para que los estudiantes organicen su tiempo (Barak et al., 2016;Bowers y Kumar, 2015;Caron, 2013;Northrup, 2002;Young, 2006), sobre todo aquellos que combinan sus estudios con otras obligaciones: trabajos a tiempo parcial, responsabilidades familiares, otros estudios, etc. ...
Este estudio explora las adaptaciones didácticas en las asignaturas de Interpretación de los grados de Traducción e Interpretación y las preferencias de los estudiantes, así como las ventajas y desventajas percibidas por los estudiantes de la docencia presencial, semipresencial y a distancia en las asignaturas de la materia de Interpretación. El estudio parte de una muestra de 122 sujetos que cursaron asignaturas de interpretación desde que se declaró el confinamiento en marzo de 2020 hasta finales del primer semestre de 2021. La metodología empleada ha recurrido al uso de cuestionarios con preguntas cerradas, abiertas y de respuesta múltiple, por lo que reúne características de los estudios descriptivos mixtos. Los datos obtenidos ponen de manifiesto una preferencia por mantener la interacción directa con los docentes y compañeros incluso en un contexto de pandemia. Al tiempo que se produce cierto rechazo de las modalidades híbridas y a distancia por las dificultades técnicas y de conexión, se destacan las ventajas de poder evitar los desplazamientos y la mayor flexibilidad que estas ofrece
... Online education is witnessing an extensive rise in student enrollment [1][2]. Online education also continues to experience higher percentage of dropouts than the in-person face-to-face programs [3][4][5]. Several reasons for students dropping out from the online courses/programs have been documented, including feeling isolated [6], challenges with balancing academics and personal demands [7][8][9], inadequate faculty and peer support [6] [9][10], challenges with technology [7] [11], and lack of engagement [7] [11][12]. Course designs that engage students through course materials and through communications with peers and instructors have been shown to support greater engagement, feeling of connected and belongingness to a part of the community, and enhance persistence rates [12] [13][14]. ...
... (2) What is the relationship between students' course level persistence intentions and perceptions of instructor practices in online undergraduate engineering courses? (3) What is the relationship between students' course persistence intentions and perceptions of peer support in online undergraduate engineering courses? For each of these three questions, we also explore whether the relationships are different for different gender identities, for traditional vs. non-traditional (i.e., veteran and/or transfer student status) students, and for employment level. ...
This research paper examines the influence of interpersonal interactions on the course-level persistence intentions of online undergraduate engineering students. Online learning is increasing in enrollment and importance in engineering education. Online courses also continue to confront issues with comparatively higher course dropout levels than face-to-face courses. This study correspondingly explores relevant student perceptions of their online course experiences to better understand the factors that contribute to students' choices to remain in or drop out of their online undergraduate engineering courses. Data presented in this study were collected during fall 2019 and spring 2020 from three ABET-accredited online undergraduate engineering courses at a large southwestern public university: electrical engineering, engineering management, and software engineering. The data was collected during the pre-COVID time. Participants were asked to respond to surveys at 12-time points during their 7.5-week online course. Each survey measured students' perceptions of course LMS dialog, perceptions of instructor practices, and peer support for completing the course. Participants also reported their intentions to persist in the course during each survey administration. A multi-level modeling analysis revealed that the Perceptions of course LMS dialog, Perceptions of Instructor Practices, and Perceptions of Peer Support are related to Perceptions of course-level Persistence Intentions. Time was also a significant predictor of persistence intentions and indicated that the course persistence intentions decrease towards the end of the course. A multi-level modeling analysis revealed that LMS dialog, perceptions of instructor practices, and peer support are related to course persistence intentions. Time was also a significant predictor of persistence intentions and indicated that the course persistence intentions decrease towards the end of the course. Additionally, interactions between demographic variables and other predictors (Perceptions of course LMS dialogue, Perceptions of Instructor Practices, and Perceptions of Peer Support) were significant. With the increase in perceptions of course LMS dialog, perceptions of instructor practices, and perceptions of peer support, there was a relatively smaller increase in the persistence intentions of veterans than non-veterans. There is relatively more increase in the persistence intentions of females than males as their perceptions of instructor practices increase. Finally, increasing perceptions of peer support led to a relatively larger increase in the persistence intentions of non-transfer students than transfer students and a relatively smaller increase in persistence intentions of students working full-time than other students.
... This new trend relates to the notion of studying and working remotely and getting universal acceptance (Chiodini, 2020). Since the last two decades, the popularity of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) highlights the significance and adoption of online learning practices as a useful tool in higher education across many countries (Bowers & Kumar, 2015;García-Martín & García-Sánchez, 2018;García-Martín & Cantón-Mayo, 2019;Surma & Kirschner, 2020). However, despite the introduction of interactive activities and inclusion of synchronous online sessions, the online learning context offers a distinctive pedagogical approach as opposed to face-to-face learning that entails adjustment and readiness to engage in an effective learning experience. ...
... In Pakistan, the common norm is that students of higher education institutes are accustomed to having regular face-to-face interactions with their instructor. However, due to the sudden transition towards online learning, some students may experience psychological dissatisfaction related to the absence of any social and physical interactions (Bowers & Kumar, 2015;Ragusa & Crampton, 2018). Mandernach et al. (2006) argue that on-campus classes offer an instructor driven learning environment, whereas online learning heavily relies on asynchronous communication. ...
The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced the notion of the “new normal” in daily life through profoundly influencing the way we used to live, study and work. During these unprecedented times, the rapid transition from traditional face-to-face learning to online learning has been viewed as a paradigm shift in higher education. Drawing impetus from the self-determination theoretical framework, the present study aims to examine the impact of the online learning climate on student’s engagement. It also hypothesizes the mediating role of basic psychological needs on the nexus between online learning and students’ engagement. Total 689 students taking online classes in ten (five publics and five private) universities of Pakistan responded to the web-based survey. The present study findings do not support the direct influence of the online learning climate on student engagement, nevertheless, this relationship was mediated by students’ perceptions concerning the extent to which their basic psychological needs were satisfied/ dissatisfied. This study theoretically and empirically contributes to both the psychology and higher education literature, pertaining to the developing field of online learning. The practical implications from this study inform policy-makers in academia to reflect on the students’ psychological needs within virtual teaching environment.
... This new trend relates to the notion of studying and working remotely and getting universal acceptance (Chiodini, 2020). Since the last two decades, the popularity of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) highlights the significance and adoption of online learning practices as a useful tool in higher education across many countries (Bowers & Kumar, 2015;García-Martín & García-Sánchez, 2018;García-Martín & Cantón-Mayo, 2019;Surma & Kirschner, 2020). However, despite the introduction of interactive activities and inclusion of synchronous online sessions, the online learning context offers a distinctive pedagogical approach as opposed to face-to-face learning that entails adjustment and readiness to engage in an effective learning experience. ...
... In Pakistan, the common norm is that students of higher education institutes are accustomed to having regular face-to-face interactions with their instructor. However, due to the sudden transition towards online learning, some students may experience psychological dissatisfaction related to the absence of any social and physical interactions (Bowers & Kumar, 2015;Ragusa & Crampton, 2018). Mandernach et al. (2006) argue that on-campus classes offer an instructor driven learning environment, whereas online learning heavily relies on asynchronous communication. ...
Resumen
La pandemia de COVID-19 ha introducido la noción de la “nueva normalidad” en la vida diaria al influir profundamente en la forma en que hemos vivido, estudiado y trabajado hasta su irrupción. Durante estos tiempos sin precedentes, la rápida transición del aprendizaje presencial tradicional al aprendizaje digital se observa como un cambio de paradigma en la educación superior. Inspirándose en el marco teórico de la autodeterminación, este estudio tiene como objetivo examinar el impacto del aprendizaje digital en la motivación de los estudiantes. También plantea la hipótesis del papel mediador, de las necesidades psicológicas básicas, en el nexo entre el aprendizaje digital y la motivación de los estudiantes. 689 estudiantes que han asistido a clases digitales en diez universidades (cinco públicas y cinco privadas) de Pakistán han respondido a la encuesta por Internet. Los resultados de esta investigación no confirman la relación directa entre el aprendizaje digital y la motivación de los estudiantes. Sin embargo, esta relación sí está mediatizada por las percepciones de los estudiantes sobre el grado en que sus necesidades psicológicas básicas han sido satisfechas / no satisfechas. Este estudio contribuye teórica y empíricamente a la literatura tanto de la psicología como de la educación superior, perteneciente al campo del aprendizaje digital que está en proceso de desarrollo. Las implicaciones prácticas de este estudio informan a los responsables de la formulación de políticas en el ámbito académico para que reflexionen sobre las necesidades psicológicas de los estudiantes dentro del entorno de la enseñanza virtual.
... Online mentoring offers important benefits to students that may not be provided by traditional mentoring, but the breadth and extent of these benefits are still being uncovered in research. Benefits include expanding mentoring possibilities and increasing available mentors for students; minimizing demographic and cultural challenges of mentoring; offering asynchronous as well as synchronous mentoring and providing more available times for mentoring and improved access to mentors; and creating an environment where students may be more willing to share information, thus creating improved trust and more effective mentor/mentee relationships (Boston & Ice, 2011;Bowers & Kumar, 2015;Sanyal & Rigby, 2017). Because online mentoring programs may be more or less structured in organization, both implementation and benefits depend on the formality and management of the mentoring program. ...
... Mentoring is essential for students in online higher education who may face more challenges than traditional university students (Bolliger & Inan, 2012). The results of this study are consistent with mentoring literature on the benefits of online mentoring for higher education students (Boston & Ice, 2011;Bowers & Kumar, 2015;Dawson, 2014;Sanyal & Rigby, 2017). Results identified four additional themes: (a) creating student connection, (b) personalizing goals for the online student, (c) differentiating online role modeling, and (d) overcoming technology challenges. ...
This survey research study analyzed responses from 143 mentors from around the world participating in a global higher education initiative. Results confirmed the effectiveness of four mentoring domains identified in the literature, reporting the most success from providing emotional and psychological support for students. This article provides mentoring strategies including student goal setting, identifies characteristics of an online role model, and shows the importance of online mentors’ confidence in students gaining technology skills. The study has additionally contributed to the literature supporting (a) benefits of online mentoring for nontraditional students, (b) influence of technology on mentoring challenges, and (c) role assumption in online mentoring. Additionally, the study provided a literature review of the background of online mentoring and mentoring practices, the benefits and challenges of online mentoring, and lessons learned from research. This work presents a comprehensive understanding of online mentoring, providing support for mentors seeking to improve their performance as well as recommendations for creating mentoring programs to improve organizations.
... Online mentoring offers important benefits to students that may not be provided by traditional mentoring, but the breadth and extent of these benefits are still being uncovered in research. Benefits include expanding mentoring possibilities and increasing available mentors for students; minimizing demographic and cultural challenges of mentoring; offering asynchronous as well as synchronous mentoring and providing more available times for mentoring and improved access to mentors; and creating an environment where students may be more willing to share information, thus creating improved trust and more effective mentor/mentee relationships (Boston & Ice, 2011;Bowers & Kumar, 2015;Sanyal & Rigby, 2017). Because online mentoring programs may be more or less structured in organization, both implementation and benefits depend on the formality and management of the mentoring program. ...
... Mentoring is essential for students in online higher education who may face more challenges than traditional university students (Bolliger & Inan, 2012). The results of this study are consistent with mentoring literature on the benefits of online mentoring for higher education students (Boston & Ice, 2011;Bowers & Kumar, 2015;Dawson, 2014;Sanyal & Rigby, 2017). Results identified four additional themes: (a) creating student connection, (b) personalizing goals for the online student, (c) differentiating online role modeling, and (d) overcoming technology challenges. ...
... The sample in our work does not wholly represent Thai universities. Another limitation is that student engagement scale was not covered in this work despite the previous literature's emphasis on the moderating effect of engagement or interactivity on the adoption of SRSs (Coates, 2005;Krause & Coates, 2008;Ng, 2012;Prensky, 2001;Bowers & Kumar, 2015). Nevertheless, this project aimed to investigate the effectiveness of the SRS and compare its performance with that of the traditional pedagogy in improving student accounting competency in specific learning outcomes. ...
Changes in university education have been proposed frequently to meet the demands of the new generation of students. According to the Thai 4.0 strategy, university education calls for technology-based education. Thus, this research investigates whether the Student Response System (SRS) effectively enhances student learning achievement in an Introductory Accounting class. Teaching accounting based on the SRS pedagogy and traditional pedagogy was examined in two groups for comparison. A total of 179 students from an international college in Thailand comprised the samples in this research. Of the 179 students, 81 students were assigned to the experimental group (EG), and 95 students were assigned to the control group. The EG intervention was conducted within a course comprising 15 lessons, with 2 lessons delivered every week and with each lesson lasting 90 minutes. Both groups participated in the pre-tests and post-tests, which assessed the students' fundamental knowledge and practical techniques. A paired sample t-test was then performed to examine the learning outcomes. A one-way analysis of covariance was performed to analyse the statistical differences of the data. Results indicated that the SRS pedagogy could effectively enhance students' accounting learning achievement, especially their practical techniques, in the Introductory Accounting class.
... Along with technology development, educative interaction can be implemented through online learning (Harasim, 2002;Rovai, 2004). The interaction on online learning has different characteristics from the traditional class (Bowers & Kumar, 2015;Hass & Joseph, 2018). The fundamental difference is on the distant location between the teachers and the students and utilize internet networks for the interaction (Anderson, 2011;Mustofa, Chodzirin, & Sayekti, 2019: 153). ...
Nowadays, online learning has forced educational stakeholders to sufficiently involve online learning by handling the fundamental difference from traditional learning platforms. While educative interaction is vital but very limited to online learning, the teachers should condition the new environment to enable the learning process. However, educative interaction on online learning requires exact syntax to help the teachers implement it correctly. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the implementation of educative learning on online learning and formulate the syntax to help teachers create educative interaction. The study focused on Islamic and Character Education subjects. The research method is qualitative, using in-depth interviews to gather the data. The informants were from 2 different elementary schools. The study result revealed two types of syntax for educative interaction on online learning: the syntax of educative interaction on real-time chatting app and syntax of educative interaction on the video conference app. Every syntax has similar general phases: preparation, introduction, core, and closing. However, every phase has different details, adjusted to the service provided by the application used. Eventually, the teachers' competence and spirit and supporting infrastructure become the primary factors in maximizing the interaction. Besides, application choice determines the strategy that will be done.
... Differences in tendencies regarding student intelligence encourage teachers to innovate in developing appropriate media and learning strategies for students in adopting language learning based on technology integration (Kusuma, 2021; Suking & Tajuddin, 2017). Although the learning materials are the same, teachers should be able to design good media and learning strategies according to students' intelligence, so as to be able to create, analyze and make good language constructions according to the material they are studying (Amitha & Ahm, 2017;Bowers & Kumar, 2015). The emphasis of language learning in junior high school is still in the introduction of vocabulary and its contextual use. ...
Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk mengkaji konsep syukur dalam Al-Qur’an dan implikasinya pada pembelajaran di masa pandemi covid-19. Studi ini dilatarbelakangi berbagai respons masyarakat dalam menyikapi proses pembelajaran di masa pandemi covid-19. Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah studi Pustaka dengan pendekatan tafsir tematik. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukan bahwa dalam menghadapi situasi pandemi covid-19 sepatutnya pembelajaran tetap berlangsung dengan baik, maka guru, siswa dan orang tua sepantasnya menggunakan cara pandang bersyukur kepada Allah SWT, sebagaimana Lukman Al-Hakim diperintahkan bersyukur dalam Al-Qur’an surat Lukman ayat 12 sebelum mulai memberikan pembelajaran kepada anaknya. Hal ini sepatutnya dilakukan agar bersyukur dan disertai ikhtiar seseorang mendorongnya memiliki rasa optimis dalam menghadapi berbagai situasi dan persoalan kehidupan. Hadirnya rasa syukur bagi guru menguatkan semangat mengajar, dan bagi siswa akan membangkitkan tekadnya dalam belajar ditengah pandemi covid-19.
... Creating a class environment where the learner is engaged, relaxed, and comfortable when communicating with their classmates, hence, social presence, is a primary objective for e-Learning. Research suggests that this is important and necessary because students are more likely to engage in higher order thinking (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2000;Garrison, Cleveland-Innes, & Fung, 2010); participate more actively in e-Learning communications (Cui, Lockee, & Meng, 2013;Danchak, Walther, & Swan, 2001); maintain enrollment in the e-Learning course (Bowers & Kumar, 2015) and show higher levels of e-Learning satisfaction (Gunawardena & Zittle, 1997;Moallem, 2015;So & Brush, 2008) when they experience a high degree of social presence in an e-Learning environment. Consequently, social presence has been considered to be a significant and central variable in determining the extent of interaction and effectiveness of the eLearning environment (Borup, West, & Graham, 2012;Kim, Kwon, & Cho, 2011;Lobry de Bruyn, 2004;McIsaac & Gunawardena, 1996;Richardson & Swan, 2003). ...
... Gunawardena's (1995) perspective on social presence and her findings started a whole new line of research in online distance education wherein the role of social presence is studied in online group learning. In particular, that research is focusing on the relationship of social presence and certain outcomes including the learner satisfaction (Aragon, 2003;Dajani, 2015;Hostetter and Busch, 2006;Moallem, 2015;Richardson and Swan, 2003;So and Brush, 2008), social/group climate (Akyol and Garrison, 2008;Rourke and Anderson, 2002;Tu, 2002a), participation and online interaction Danchak et al., 2001;Jorge, 2010;Polhemus et al., 2001;Zhao et al., 2014), perceived learning (Caspi and Blau, 2008;Maddrell, 2011;Richardson and Swan, 2003;Swan and Shih, 2005), learning outcomes (Russo and Benson, 2005;Hostetter, 2013;Madrell, 2011;Shin, 2003;Wei et al., 2012), motivation (Bai, 2003;Robb and Sutton, 2014;Tao, 2009), community building (Lin et al., 2017;Rourke et al., 2001;Rovai, 2002), and dropout (Bowers and Kumar, 2015;Robb and Sutton, 2014). ...
Social presence is an important construct in online group learning. It influences the way how social interaction unfolds online and affects learning and social outcomes. However, what precisely social presence is has been under debate, as presently a plethora of different definitions and measures exist preventing the development of a coherent research field regarding social presence and its defining role in online group learning. To solve the issue, we went back to the original social presence theory as devised by the communication researchers Short et al. (1976) to show that although they had a clear idea of social presence --namely "realness" of other persons in the interaction-- their definition is ambiguous, not operationalizable, and the measurement of it questionable. We, therefore, disentangled their social presence theory and (1) reformulated the social presence definition to enable an operationalization in line with the previous conceptualization of social presence; (2) departed from the technological determinism of social presence; and (3) identified two other constructs closely linked to social presence, namely, sociability (as a medium attribute) and social space (as a group attribute). By reformulating the definition of social presence and by linking it to social space and sociability, we hope to contribute to a more coherent line of social presence research and to better understand interpersonal communication, group learning, and group dynamics when learning and working together in an online setting.
... According to Bowers and Kumar (2015), one of the main reasons for students' dropout is the lack of social and teacher presence in online courses. I was aware that interaction is a social phenomenon (Picciano, 2017). ...
Due to COVID-19, almost all educational institutions were temporarily closed across the globe. As a result, many educators have focused on delivering courses through emergency remote teaching. Preparation for remote teaching was itself a great challenge. In this reflective paper, I have presented my own experience of preparation for emergency remote teaching for one of my courses in one of the Canadian universities. I have mentioned in the paper the factors that were helpful in the preparation for remote teaching such as my own background knowledge of online learning, training for remote teaching, designing and developing the course, using synchronous and asynchronous, engaging students, and presences.
... The lecturer or instructor must be familiarized with the deliberate language learners' culture-particular learning processes. Bowers et al. (2015) asserted that the condition might refer to adjusting the lecturer's intended perspective as more pleasant and more critical. Moodle-based materials should combine principally to what the learners already comprehend, their first languages and cultures, and inform learners of any meaningful cultural diversity. ...
Learning management systems (LMS) Moodle presents a beneficial arrangement of features that support language learning in the electronic environment. The English lecturers' challenge is to obtain interaction and adaptability with their online classroom. The study is to find the effectiveness of teaching English in Moodle-based. The semi-structured interviews and open-ended questioner were employed to recognize the complete information to the English lecturer's teaching experiences based on Moodle. This study determines that the effective teaching of English Moodle-based depends on both lecturer competencies in pedagogy English and lecturer experience in the Moodle system. It covers a complete curriculum with high expectations, composes applicable model content, and constructs it more obtainable, provides specific and culturally applicable instruction, maintains practical approaches to explicit learning strategies, allows learners to use the first language, prepares vocabulary in various contexts, and develops reading comprehension, and integrates communicative competence abilities. The language learning activities of the Moodle classroom are capable of fulfilling learning practice for complete progression participants with peculiar configuration, management, adjustments, and teaching approach. The English teaching course designer should organize and manage an expected course model of course-related activity, and it applied to the utilization of the syllabus or course information page. The essential aspect of interchangeable communication significantly reshapes language teaching pedagogy in the electronic ecosystem. The effective teaching of English Moodle-based can be achieved with teaching pedagogy's full capabilities and technicality in the Moodle system.
... The above research clearly focuses on the assessment of the experience itself in different countries; however, none focuses on the social presence of an instructor, regardless of the mode of communication used. With research suggesting a significant relationship between the role of the instructor and student engagement in an online classroom, along with the important long-term consequences of student retention based on student engagement levels (Bowers & Kumar, 2015), there is a need to do so as the social presence of a teacher is linked to both teaching presence and student engagement and retention. Therefore, the purpose of this paper ...
The Lebanese University was forced to adopt online learning after the Covid-19 pandemic, and the need has emerged to examine social presence in synchronous teaching. Adopting a collective case study design, the study examined online social presence in 18 videos of 9 instructors from the Lebanese university, Faculty of Education/ Pedagogy (Spring 2020). Specifically, it examined to what extent instructors could maintain affection, interaction and cohesion. A 23 item customized and validated checklist based on social presence categories of was used to analyse three social presence categories: Affective Response (represented through emotional expressions, use of humor, …), Interactive Response (statements to continue discussion thread, quoting from others' messages,), and Cohesive Response (such as expressions that address participants by name, addressing group using inclusive pronouns …). Results have shown that instructors managed to establish high social presence, manifested in their ability to maintain affection as seen in their facial expressions and sensed in their voice tone and sympathy. It was also shown that cohesion was highly present as teachers shared their tangible experience with students and humoured with them, for example. However, interaction was seen to be relatively low as some students did not participate unless they were called upon.
... With many courses having to move online due to Covid-19 there are methods of teaching that can be replaced by online equivalents: e.g., post-it notes can be replaced by Socrative/Kahoot posts or similar; in-person calls for "hands up" can be replaced with Mentimeter polls, or responses in Zoom chat. The computer-mediated environment of online learning presents pedagogical challenges that need to be both acknowledged and addressed (Bowers & Kumar, 2017;Simonette et al., 2019). This may present even more challenges for teaching complex problems. ...
“Wicked problems” are complex to understand and challenging to teach. Our experience of teaching about environmental concerns in Aotearoa New Zealand suggests how these concepts are taught is more important for student learning than the nature of wicked problems themselves. By offering opportunities for students to co-develop their own situated knowledges about wicked problems, they can conceptualise and tackle them more effectively at their own pace and in their own experiential contexts. Here we identify and discuss approaches to teaching and learning that can be effectively applied to any wicked problem. We demonstrate a hopeful way to teach and learn about unwieldy and overwhelming issues that many of today’s undergraduates will inevitably be expected to confront in the future. This paper provides aframework to engage students in acourse, and tools for engendering active participation insituated and tangible learning experiences when teaching wicked problems. As lecturers teaching in aSchool of Environment in the disciplinary areas of geography, environmental science, science communication, and sustainability, we discuss the value and applications of these ideas across three levels of undergraduate teaching. We identify challenges that we have experienced and show how it is possible to turn these challenges into opportunities.
... It is quite difficult to pursue active (in-person educational) interaction between e-learning teachers and students where learning content is primarily delivered unilaterally and while face-to-face encounters between teachers and students are limited. These problems are greatly exacerbated during a pandemic in which face-to-face interaction is specifically avoided [9,10]. COVID-19 social distancing regulations make it very difficult to exploit the beneficial effects and enhancements of social presence, which now need to be compensated for through improved e-learning methods and environments. ...
One of the important issues that computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW) and human-computer interaction (HCI) researchers want to solve through cooperative system design is the improvement of performance. The same is true for virtual learning environments. The role and importance of technology in education have increased due to the COVID-19 pandemic, while the need to explore factors that influence social and academic efficacy in virtual environments has increased based on the explosion in online virtual teaching environments and virtual conference apps. Based on the theoretical description of group cohesion for the purpose of enhancing further collaboration, this paper asks what role group cohesion plays and how significant it is to group efficacy and performance in virtual learning environments, and also whether a sense of social presence in a virtual learning environment plays a significant role in optimizing group cohesion and, thus, group performance. Experimental studies were conducted on a total of 121 people consisting of 35 virtual learning groups. Results show that a sense of social presence has a positive effect on group efficacy, and that the adjustment effect of social presence has significant positive effects on group cohesion and group efficacy. This study provides a theoretical and empirical basis for the design of methods that can maximize positive effects in support of group learning and collaboration in virtual learning environments.
... For example, synchronous OL, as opposed to asynchronous OL, may foster greater higher order thinking skills (Brierton et al., 2016) as well promote student engagement via an increased perception of belonging (Peterson et al., 2018). While asynchronous OL can be more flexible for students than synchronous OL, student success in asynchronous OL heavily depends on their time management skills (Baker et al., 2019;Broadbent & Poon, 2015), and the lack of human interaction with instructors/peers in asynchronous OL results in fewer opportunities for extrinsic accountability, decreasing motivation (Bowers & Kumar, 2015;Mullen & Tallent-Runnels, 2006;Zhan & Mei, 2013). A potential solution in addressing decreased extrinsic accountability or motivation in OL can be found in blended (hybrid) learning, and specifically, flipped classrooms. ...
Innovative didactive strategies such as online learning and flipped classroom can improve student performance while maximizing university resources and personnel. Assessing how students perceive courses designed using these strategies, as well as perform within them, is becoming increasingly important. An introductory soil science course at a 4-year land-grant university was taught (1) face-to-face (FTF, n = 110) with one 50-minute lecture per week and a 2-hour lab twice per week, using (2) flipped classroom (FC, n = 31) design in which most instruction occurred online with a 2-hour lab once per week, and (3) fully and asynchronously online (OL, n = 23). Students completed an end of the semester survey designed to assess perceptions of course utility, the utility of course components, and engagement level in the course. Proportional odds regression models and log odds ratios were used to assess how student perceptions of and performance in this course were influenced by teaching method or student class standing. Class standing had the strongest influence on responses to perception and engagement questions, while teaching method minimally influenced responses to perception and engagement questions. Furthermore, students with the largest odds of expressing potentially less positive perceptions – in this case sophomores – also had the largest odds of performing poorly in the course. These results suggest that FC and OL are viable options which can extend university resources, impact, and accessibility, and that student perceptions of college courses, which in this study varied by class standing, can influence their performance.
Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/10899995.2021.1965419
... However, teachers are faced with new challenges in online learning environments, and as mentioned in Yang, Quadir, Chen, and Miao (2016), it is of paramount importance to provide interpersonal communication opportunities for students to socially engage with their teachers and peers in order to afford online students a sense of presence similar to that in face-to-face classes. The importance of online presence has been highlighted by numerous studies (Garrison & Cleveland-Innes, 2005), and it has been found that teaching presence is important to maintain students' motivation, to prevent a feeling of isolation and to reduce the number of dropouts (Bowers & Kumar, 2015). Effective online guidance in language learning involves three main aspects: giving both time and attention to the learners, and showing them respect (Cunningham, 2015). ...
Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, the EUROCALL society succeeded in holding the 28th EUROCALL conference, EUROCALL2020, on 20-21 August as an online, two-day gathering. The transition process required to make this happen was demanding and insightful for everyone involved, and, in many ways, a logical consequence of the core content and purpose of EUROCALL. Who would be better suited to transform an onsite conference into an online event than EUROCALL? CALL for widening participation was this year’s theme. We welcomed contributions from both theoretical and practical perspectives in relation to the many forms and contexts of CALL. We particularly welcomed longitudinal studies or studies that revisited earlier studies. The academic committee accepted 300 abstracts for paper presentations, symposia, workshops, and posters under this theme; 57 short papers are published in this volume. We hope you will enjoy reading this volume, the first one to reflect a one hundred percent online EUROCALL conference/Online Gathering.
... Studies based on SDT and related theories show that a lack of social presence and interaction (e.g., Bowers and Kumar, 2015;Butz and Stupnisky, 2017;Wang et al., 2019) seems to be the major impairment in distance learning when compared to face-to-face learning. For example, a study comparing distance and face-to-face learning among undergraduate students found that BPNS was lower and BPNF was higher in online settings than in conventional settings. ...
Self-determination theory assumes that the basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness are associated with motivational regulation. As these basic psychological needs may have been affected by the shift to distance learning, students' motivational regulation and vitality may have suffered as well. The purpose of this study was to examine the motivational regulation, satisfaction, or frustration of the basic psychological needs and vitality of university students before and after the transition to forced distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic: Two student samples from Austria and Germany were studied: One was surveyed before the conversion to distance learning (N = 1,139) and the other at the beginning of forced distance learning (N = 1,835). The instruments used were the Scales for the Measurement of Motivational Regulation for Learning in University Students (SMR-L), the German version of the Basic Psychological Needs Satisfaction and Frustration Scale, a scale developed by the authors to differentiate the assessment of social relatedness, and the German version of the Subjective Vitality Scale. The results show that the satisfaction of basic psychological needs was significantly lower and the frustration thereof substantially higher during the distance learning period than before the pandemic. Intrinsic motivation and identified regulation were significantly lower during the forced distance learning period, and more controlled forms of motivation were higher than before the pandemic. Structural equation models showed that 42% of the students' vitality can be explained by motivational regulation and the satisfaction and frustration of their basic needs. Motivational regulation styles functioned (differentiated according to the degree of autonomy) as mediating variables between basic needs and vitality. In terms of theoretical implications, the distinction between approach and avoidance components of introjected regulation was shown to be adequate and necessary, as they explain the outcome vitality differently. The support and avoidance of frustration of basic Müller et al. Basic Needs, Motivation, and Vitality Frontiers in Psychology | www.frontiersin.org 2 November 2021 | Volume 12 | Article 775804 psychological needs should be considered in distance learning to promote the quality of motivation and students' vitality.
... Research has consistently suggested that students have experienced dissatisfaction with social presence and interactions (Delahunty & Jones, 2014;Bowers & Kumar, 2015;Butz & Stupnisky, 2017;Wang et al., 2019) in their online learning experiences, which in a communicative L2 classroom would only serve to undermine feelings of relatedness and WTC. Wang et al. (2019) suggest that the physical and psychological distance created by the reduced proximity between individuals and their interlocutors is the primary factor in thwarting relatedness during online communicative situations. ...
Since 2020, language learning environments have had to swiftly transition from traditional face-to-face learning to remote learning contexts. This chapter interrogates factors related to students' willingness to communicate (WTC) in online-mediated discussions in a Japanese university classroom. Using a self-determination theory framework to conduct a thematic analysis of data collected from focus group discussions and the written reflections of English L2 learners (N=19), three main factors were found to contribute to a lack of WTC. Two of the three are unique to online learning: disruptive environmental factors and a thwarting of relatedness between classmates. The third factor, a perceived lack of communicative ability, although not unique to online learning, was amplified by the online environment. In order to address these factors, which contribute to a lack of WTC, a number of teaching interventions aimed at fostering communicative online classrooms are introduced.
... Moreover, other researchers [12][13][14] found that optimistic views of online learning associated with positive outcomes. Indeed, a recent study [15] recommended conducting more research to find out the effect of LMS on learners performance and views. ...
The primary goal of this research was to investigate AOU students' conceptions of the quality of online experience through the learning management system in supporting their classroom tutorials. A 32-item questionnaire was administered to a randomly selected sample (205) of Elementary Education students at the AOU Jordan Branch. On one hand, the results showed that the objectives of the courses were very clear to students, online materials on the learning management system were interesting and supported to classroom learning, students preferred online quizzes, the online materials supported key assessment tasks and tutors provided continuous access to relevant information about assessment. On the other hand, the findings revealed that the online materials and e-activities were too loaded for the students to understand thoroughly, and much of the feedback they received from the tutor was not helpful. The results also indicated that there were no statistically significant differences among students’ views of BL or their overall satisfaction of the online experience that could be attributed to gender or academic achievement level. Results suggest some pedagogical implications for tutors and programmer coordinators.
... Previous studies showed that learning foreign languages online has positive impacts, including increased student interaction, collaborative relationships, linguistic participation, equitable opportunities, and increased creativity and student achievements (Bowers & Kumar, 2015;Peeters, 2018;Lin et al. 2016;Moeller & Abbott, 2018;Mellati & Khademi, 2015). ...
The Coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) creates challenges for Arabic learning at Indonesian Islamic Colleges. The limitations of the language learning process during the pandemic caused various problems. In addition, using learning strategies requires special planning related to differences in face-to-face learning processes into learning with online systems. Arabic is a compulsory subject that helps students acquire communication skills in a foreign language. This research describes students' perceptions of Arabic online learning at a public Islamic college in Malang. It also examines the strategies for learning during the COVID-19 emergency. The study uses a qualitative approach for data collection through observation, interviews, and documentation. Research samples were taken from students in semester 2nd to semester 6th with varying abilities. The data analysis is carried out using triangulation techniques in several steps, and involves collection, reduction, and conclusion. The results showed that students perceive Arabic online learning to be less effective. Some factors that do not support online learning such as the lack of instructions given by lecturers, limited internet connection, lack of internal motivation of students, lack of discussion hours. Several strategies are used, including discussions, lectures, singing, presentations, studying literature, and writing. The use of Arabic learning resources in online media illustrates the process of independent learning for students. The results provide input for integrating all components of learning holistically and variedly for students to remain motivated irrespective of the condition. This study recommends other researchers to examine and improve what skills teachers need to have when learning online and efforts to increase student interest in the language learning process with an online system.
... However, teachers are faced with new challenges in online learning environments, and as mentioned in Yang, Quadir, Chen, and Miao (2016), it is of paramount importance to provide interpersonal communication opportunities for students to socially engage with their teachers and peers in order to afford online students a sense of presence similar to that in face-to-face classes. The importance of online presence has been highlighted by numerous studies (Garrison & Cleveland-Innes, 2005), and it has been found that teaching presence is important to maintain students' motivation, to prevent a feeling of isolation and to reduce the number of dropouts (Bowers & Kumar, 2015). Effective online guidance in language learning involves three main aspects: giving both time and attention to the learners, and showing them respect (Cunningham, 2015). ...
Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, the EUROCALL society succeeded in holding the 28th EUROCALL conference, EUROCALL2020, on 20-21 August as an online, two-day gathering. The transition process required to make this happen was demanding and insightful for everyone involved, and, in many ways, a logical consequence of the core content and purpose of EUROCALL. Who would be better suited to transform an onsite conference into an online event than EUROCALL? CALL for widening participation was this year’s theme. We welcomed contributions from both theoretical and practical perspectives in relation to the many forms and contexts of CALL. We particularly welcomed longitudinal studies or studies that revisited earlier studies. The academic committee accepted 300 abstracts for paper presentations, symposia, workshops, and posters under this theme; 57 short papers are published in this volume. We hope you will enjoy reading this volume, the first one to reflect a one hundred percent online EUROCALL conference/Online Gathering.
... Furthermore, providing visual examples throughout the process can help students evaluate what is relevant for the translation of biology to human systems [10]. While this exercise was carried out in an online/hybrid setting during the COVID-19 pandemic, it is likely that doing this exercise in a full face-to-face context with a physical instructor present might result in deeper participation across the board [28]. The possibility of having multi-sensory iterative feedback loops from the instructor and the ability of students to share what in real-time, would likely deepen their acquired knowledge [29]. ...
Biomimicry education is grounded in a set of natural design principles common to every known lifeform on Earth. These Life’s Principles (LPs) (cc Biomimicry 3.8), provide guidelines for emulating sustainable strategies that are field-tested over nearly four billion years of evolution. This study evaluates an exercise for teaching LPs to interdisciplinary students at three universities, Arizona State University (ASU) in Phoenix, Arizona (USA), College of Charleston (CofC) in Charleston, South Carolina (USA) and The Hague University of Applied Sciences (THUAS) in The Hague (The Netherlands) during the spring 2021 semester. Students researched examples of both biological organisms and human designs exhibiting the LPs. We gauged the effectiveness of the exercise through a common rubric and a survey to discover ways to improve instruction and student understanding. Increased student success was found to be directly linked to introducing the LPs with illustrative examples, assigning an active search for examples as part of the exercise, and utilizing direct assessment feedback loops. Requiring students to highlight the specific terms of the LP sub-principles in each example is a suggested improvement to the instructions and rubric. An iterative, face-to-face, discussion-based teaching and learning approach helps overcome minor misunderstandings. Reiterating the LPs throughout the semester with opportunities for application will highlight the potential for incorporating LPs into students’ future sustainable design process.
... However, teachers are faced with new challenges in online learning environments, and as mentioned in Yang, Quadir, Chen, and Miao (2016), it is of paramount importance to provide interpersonal communication opportunities for students to socially engage with their teachers and peers in order to afford online students a sense of presence similar to that in face-to-face classes. The importance of online presence has been highlighted by numerous studies (Garrison & Cleveland-Innes, 2005), and it has been found that teaching presence is important to maintain students' motivation, to prevent a feeling of isolation and to reduce the number of dropouts (Bowers & Kumar, 2015). Effective online guidance in language learning involves three main aspects: giving both time and attention to the learners, and showing them respect (Cunningham, 2015). ...
Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, the EUROCALL society succeeded in holding the 28th EUROCALL conference, EUROCALL2020, on 20-21 August as an online, two-day gathering. The transition process required to make this happen was demanding and insightful for everyone involved, and, in many ways, a logical consequence of the core content and purpose of EUROCALL. Who would be better suited to transform an onsite conference into an online event than EUROCALL? CALL for widening participation was this year’s theme. We welcomed contributions from both theoretical and practical perspectives in relation to the many forms and contexts of CALL. We particularly welcomed longitudinal studies or studies that revisited earlier studies. The academic committee accepted 300 abstracts for paper presentations, symposia, workshops, and posters under this theme; 57 short papers are published in this volume. We hope you will enjoy reading this volume, the first one to reflect a one hundred percent online EUROCALL conference/Online Gathering.
... One of their findings indicates 59% prefer online-only or hybrid models over exclusively face-to-face experiences with the preference for online learning even stronger for Women and Black learners. This growth and interest is promising as online courses are often equivalent in quality to face-to-face courses (Bowers & Kumar, 2015) and provide access to higher education for students who otherwise may not attend. However, some studies show students have lower persistence rates for online courses than face-to-face courses (Hart, 2012;Xu & Jaggars, 2011). ...
The online student population continues to grow as students look for convenience and flexibility, which has positive consequences as online courses are often equivalent in quality to face-to-face courses and provide access to higher education for students who otherwise may not attend. However, some groups of students have lower rates of persistence than others, which may be due, at least in part, to issues of equity and inclusion that arise in online courses. In this chapter, we begin by sharing the reasons some groups of students are underrepresented in online courses and why they have lower persistence rates when they do attend. Then we discuss how online discussions differ from face-to-face discussions and their impact on students from underrepresented groups. To improve online student experiences, we outline a plan that builds off student strengths. We emphasize the creation of a welcoming classroom culture, culturally responsive pedagogy, universal design for learning, and transformative learning to create equitable small group online discussions using multi-modal asynchronous and synchronous technologies. Within this plan, we also address barriers related to bandwidth and access to technology.
... Differences in tendencies regarding student intelligence encourage teachers to innovate in developing appropriate media and learning strategies for students in adopting language learning based on technology integration (Kusuma, 2021; Suking & Tajuddin, 2017). Although the learning materials are the same, teachers should be able to design good media and learning strategies according to students' intelligence, so as to be able to create, analyze and make good language constructions according to the material they are studying (Amitha & Ahm, 2017;Bowers & Kumar, 2015). The emphasis of language learning in junior high school is still in the introduction of vocabulary and its contextual use. ...
... Although e-learning presents many advantages (Bowers and Kumar 2015), it also hands over certain challenges compared to the traditional face-to-face education. One of the most important aspects is the absence of a direct contact between teachers and students. ...
This work presents a feasibility study of remote attention level estimation based on eye blink frequency. We first propose an eye blink detection system based on Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), very competitive with respect to related works. Using this detector, we experimentally evaluate the relationship between the eye blink rate and the attention level of students captured during online sessions. The experimental framework is carried out using a public multi-modal database for eye blink detection and attention level estimation called mEBAL, which comprises data from 38 students and multiples acquisition sensors, in particular, i) an electroencephalogram (EEG) band which provides the time signals coming from the student's cognitive information, and ii) RGB and NIR cameras to capture the students face gestures. The results achieved suggest an inverse correlation between the eye blink frequency and the attention level. This relation is used in our proposed method called ALEBk for estimating the attention level as the inverse of the eye blink frequency. Our results open a new research line to introduce this technology for attention level estimation on future e-learning platforms, among other applications of this kind of behavioral biometrics based on face analysis.
... Although e-learning presents many advantages (Bowers and Kumar 2015), it also hands over certain challenges compared to the traditional face-to-face education. One of the most important aspects is the absence of a direct contact between teachers and students. ...
This work presents a feasibility study of remote attention level estimation based on eye blink frequency. We first propose an eye blink detection system based on Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), very competitive with respect to related works. Using this detector, we experimentally evaluate the relationship between the eye blink rate and the attention level of students captured during online sessions. The experimental framework is carried out using a public multimodal database for eye blink detection and attention level estimation called mEBAL, which comprises data from 38 students and multiples acquisition sensors, in particular, i) an electroencephalogram (EEG) band which provides the time signals coming from the student's cognitive information, and ii) RGB and NIR cameras to capture the students face gestures. The results achieved suggest an inverse correlation between the eye blink frequency and the attention level. This relation is used in our proposed method called ALEBk for estimating the attention level as the inverse of the eye blink frequency. Our results open a new research line to introduce this technology for attention level estimation on future e-learning platforms, among other applications of this kind of behavioral biometrics based on face analysis.
... Much recent work already suggests that economic imperative, rather than benefits to learning are the true driver of the online pivot (Burke & Larmar, 2021;Dell et al., 2010). Further, the 'facelessness' and lack of 'personhood' in online learning environments have been identified as isolating and challenging for many students (Bowers & Kumar 2015). Accepting the idea that the online pivot is an orderly and obvious progression on behalf of educators for the good of learners, is to strip away the historical forces, institutional constructions, and socio-cultural inequalities from the equation. ...
Much has been written about the demands of ‘pandemic pedagogy’ and the ‘online pivot’ which have seen educators across the globe move to online teaching. Multiple studies are emerging of these online pedagogies and hasty upskills. Less exploration exists on the educator’s own curation of the online self and on the extra workload of teaching online. This paper draws on the work of Zygmunt Bauman and Rein Raud, their work on performativity and ‘practices of selfhood’, to examine educators’ self-curation onscreen. I suggest that educators’ work has expanded to include the cultivation of an online self and that teaching online is a feature of the encroachment on the personal space and personal lives of academics. Teaching online, as such, is being weaponized by the neoliberal agendas at play in the education field.
... ilities. Horzum (2017) asserted that the social presence describes establishing a supportive atmosphere to feel a particular point of encouragement and protection to expose their opinions in a collaborative setting. Teaching presence referred to the extended term associated with the well-organized design and arrangement of the knowledge experience (Bowers and Kumar. 2015). In addition to these tasks, formal education, the institution, and its lecturers' representatives habitually perform a significant certified function that includes learners' evaluation. ...
Integrating English learning content enhance complexity and unconventional demands challenge lecturers in Higher Education. The study investigates and determines an English learning course design through Moodle. The most suitable approach to develop an online environment's essential language learners' accomplishment outcomes. The study was conducted with the qualitative approach with a case study research design. The thirty-eight lecturers generate as respondents from Higher Education in the Jakarta area. The result has found that Moodle could implement the demands-complexity of English language learning in the electronic ecosystem. The English course should have obtained attention or engagement with familiarize, encourage, fulfill, evaluate, and understand actual content material integrated Moodle feature. The Moodle-based designer must develop topological technologies to request the necessities of learners needs. Moodle is not fundamentally constructed as a mechanism concerning language learning, and it should have been noticed that the electronic model was not a flawless online learning system for the English educational process. Nonetheless, it presents various resources and excellent learning designs. It frequently engaged learners' and lecturers' adverse responses to the acquiring of English as a foreign language. Technical problems and educational challenges should not be neglected while utilizing Moodle program in the electronic ecosystem.
... Teaching presence, which refers to the interaction between students and their online teachers, is one of the most fundamental issues that need to be studied more ( Garrison et al., 2000( Garrison et al., , 2010bAngelino, William, &Natvig, 2007;Rovai, 2008;Rovai& Downey, 2010;Spiro, 2012;Khalid & Quick, 2014a, 2014b. Several researchers (Bowers & Kumar, 2015;Andersen, 2013;Sher, 2009;Denson, Loveday, & Dalton, 2010;Moore, 1989) believe that the involvement in online courses by the e-instructor, identified by Garrison Anderson and Archer (2000) as teaching presence, plays an essential role in keeping the attention. Research has also associated students' satisfaction with social presence in online and blended classes (Richardson & Swan, 2003;Picciano, 2002;Swan & Shih, 2005). ...
The purpose of this study was to assess online course delivery satisfaction among undergraduate students at a Jordanian public university using an adapted Community of Inquiry (CoI) model. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with a group of students enrolled in an English language online course. The data was analyzed to determine whether teaching presence and social presence had significant effects on course satisfaction. The results showed that teaching presence significantly correlated with course satisfaction, followed by social presence. Teaching presence showed the strongest positive correlation, which would be considered a very large effect size, followed by social presence. These findings indicated that students were very likely to have high course satisfaction levels. The outcome of the analysis also indicated no statistically significant differences in the level of satisfaction based on average, major, or study year.
... In this study, 38.5% students disagreed and 18.7% strongly disagreed that high quality learning can take place without face to face interaction. However, Bowers et al. suggested that "carefully designed interactions, faculty student contact and ongoing instructor feedback" are critical for student retention 26 . ...
Background: The novel coronavirus disease or Covid-19 is caused by a virus of a strain named Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Countries enacted a strict self-isolation order as the authorities seek to clamp down on the coronavirus pandemic that has led to severe socioeconomic disruptions to minimize close contact between individuals. One of them is the concept of work from home and the continuation of studies through online sessions. The study aimed to examine the psychological health of medical students in this quarantine period and the effect of this on their daily life activities and their attitude towards online classes.
College students' perceptions of online group work can be negative, which creates challenges for implementing group work in online courses. Additionally, little research has examined group work skill development, despite calls for better preparing students for working effectively in groups. The purpose of the current study was to test the effectiveness of a utility-value intervention designed to enhance students' perceptions of online group work and their group work skill use. Students (N = 68) were randomly assigned to view a video and answer an essay question on the usefulness and benefits (utility value) of online group work and group work skills (intervention) or on how online group projects were graded (control). Students in the intervention condition indicated online group work to be more useful and reported greater post-intervention group work skill use compared to students in the control condition. Students further reported their perceptions of the usefulness and costs of online group work, as well as their group work skills and insights, in open-ended items. Overall, the current study provides an effective and easy to implement intervention for improving college students' perceptions of online group work and their group work skill use.
The spread of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in many countries around the world has changed the learning-teaching process in higher education sectors from face-to-face learning to online learning. This study aims to understand undergraduate students’ views on the implementation of online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. This research was conducted on 4th to 8th-semester students at the Islamic higher education, Universitas Islam Indonesia, using a qualitative case study. Findings of the study have consisted of three broad themes; firstly, the advantages of online learning: increasing technological literacy, flexibility in learning, improving self-ability, being financially efficient, and supported various learning media; secondly, the weaknesses of online learning: heavy tasks, less effective and decreased enthusiasm, little control from the lecturers, and technical problems; thirdly, constructive feedback on the implementation of online learning: the creation of interesting learning videos, fun learning strategies, holding quizzes, notification of lectures to be multiplied, free internet quota, and additional time for working on assignments. The findings reinforce other studies where the implementation of online learning still requires improvements, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. This research can be a reference in policymaking. Further research is needed from the perspectives of lecturers and policymakers to complement the findings.
This PhD project focuses on the investigation of key influential variables related to blended learning (BL) courses in Tanzanian Universities by applying the Community of Inquiry theory. The Community of Inquiry theoretical framework represents a process of creating a deep and meaningful learning experience through the development of three interdependent elements – social, cognitive and teaching presence. Five independent studies were conducted involving five universities in five regions in Tanzania. A total of 2704 students and instructors were involved in the studies. Data were collected using surveys, interviews, observation and focus group discussions. The major findings show that teaching, social and cognitive presences tend to influence student perfomance in certain circumstances. Students feel highly connected in their BL courses. However, the results indicate that their sense of connection does not predict their academic performance. The results show that students use group discussions to connect with each other, which enhances interactions and social presence. Instructors tend to view teaching as mainly lecturing and BL as an extension of face-to-face instruction. Recommendations for applying blended learning are put forth among Tanzanian universites.
We used BPMN diagrams to identify indicators that can assist teachers in their intervention actions to support students' self-regulation and co-regulation in an asynchronous e-learning context. The use of BPMN modeling, by making explicit the tasks and procedures implicit in the intervention of the e-learning teacher, also exposed which data were available for developing decision-support indicators, as well as the relevant moments for carrying out interventions. Such indicators can help e-learning teachers focus their interventions to support self-regulation and co-regulation of learning, as well as enabling the creation of live data dashboards to support decision-making for those interventions, thus this process can contribute to devise better instruments for teacher intervention in support of self-regulation and co-regulation of student learning.
Purpose
The perception of an inferior learning experience is the main challenge for online learning, which leads to higher dropout rates in online courses. The purpose of this paper focuses on investigating how the multi-dimensional construct of social presence would affect the behavior of online learners.
Design/methodology/approach
A conceptual model that describes online learner behaviors is proposed by including the four social presence variables, learning satisfaction and continuance intention, which is examined via the data collected by a survey of 237 online learners from a typical online learning platform in China. The relationships between variables were tested via structural equation modeling.
Findings
The results revealed that the intimate and immersive social factors have positive impacts on learning satisfaction, which in turn results in continuous intention in online learning. Thus, online learning platform providers should seriously consider building an intimate and immersive online environment for learners. Furthermore, this research provides a more comprehensive understanding of online learning from a social presence perspective for researchers and practitioners.
Originality/value
The study contributes to a better understanding of the social presence which is conceptualized as a four-dimensional construct, and shows how social factors influence learning satisfaction and continuous intention, providing a deeper understanding of the core relationship between social aspects and learning performance in online learning.
Although researchers agree that student engagement in online courses is a function of time dedicated to course-related activities, there is little consensus about the best way to quantify the construct. This study introduces a measure for undergraduate engineering students' engagement in online courses using their interactions with their online course learning management system (LMS). Data from 81 courses offered by three fully online, undergraduate engineering degree programs generated a total of 3848 unique student–course combinations (approximately 2.7 million rows of LMS interaction data), to which we applied a five-step process to calculate a single score representing student LMS engagement. First, we converted the students' LMS interaction data into a set of natural features representing the time they spent per 3-day period on various course elements, such as quizzes, assignments, discussion forums, and so forth, and how these times changed across the duration of the course. We then used the natural features to derive 216 relative features describing deviations from typical interaction patterns among students in the same course. Next, we conducted association rule mining on a training portion of the data set to generate rules separately describing the behavior of students who completed the course (completers) and those who chose to drop early (leavers). The rules generated were applied to students from the testing portion of the data set to compute the percentage of unique rules met by completers and leavers. Finally, the mathematical difference between the percentages of completer and leaver rules met by each student was found to be the best measure of student engagement.
The COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to the accelerated spread of e-learning around the world. In e-learning, self-regulation becomes more relevant than ever. Reducing the influence of traditional features of the face-to-face learning environment and increasing the impact of the e-environment place high demands on students’ self-regulation. The author’s self-regulation e-learning model emphasizes the position of e-learning at the intersection of the electronic environment and the learning environment. We observe a collision of the concepts of these two environments. The Internet is a more common environment that provokes the use of unacceptable tools and hints, which is a logical consequence of such behavior to pass the test, and not to gain knowledge. Therefore, the most important thing is that students have their own goals and strategies, and use the large resources of the electronic environment for development, and not for cheating. The authors conducted a survey (N = 767), which showed that students rate their self-efficacy of online learning higher in the e-environment than in the offline learning environment. Self-regulation indicators are the highest in the field of environment, and the lowest when setting goals and in time management.
This study addressed disciplinary differences in hybrid courses using lecture videos to support in-person class discussions. Our results suggested that disciplinary differences existed, students' perceived importance of lecture videos may have had a stronger influence on viewership and audience retention rate than other factors, and procrastination of video consumption correlated with lower exam scores. Building on existing research in hybrid course design, the use of online lectures, and student engagement, our findings suggest that purposeful integration of online videos in the hybrid class should be a consideration of faculty members designing hybrid classes with a heavy reliance on online lectures.
Since the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, tertiary education has been mainly pursued through online teaching. This form of teaching is also associated with challenges regarding the social presence of both lecturers and the students during classes. In this context, understanding how to effectively enforce social interaction and trust in the virtual classroom is of high importance. This chapter presents various examples of social learning pursued by the Management Center Innsbruck in their blended learning degree programs. Many of these have already been established in 2014 when the first blended learning degree programs started. However, the need for physical distancing made clear that social presence and interaction are of even greater relevance than ever before. Increasing the sense of cohesion and being a proper member of a study group can also be supported by more informal interactions.
This research aims to examine distance education practices from the perspective of instructors in terms of Planning, implementation and evaluation. It is aimed to reveal the current situation regarding the planning, implementation and evaluation of distance education practices by ensuring that the distance education practices related to the teaching methods and techniques used in the courses, content and process are evaluated from the perspective of the instructors. The study group of the research consists of 20 instructors. In the research, qualitative data were obtained by the case study method. In the study, the data were collected using the semi-structured interview technique developed in consideration of the purpose of the research. Qualitative content analysis was used in the analysis of the data obtained. The results of the research reveal the positive and negative opinions of the instructors in terms of planning, implementation and evaluation. Considering the findings by institutions, practitioners, and the Council of Higher Education that implement distance education may contribute to increasing the quality of education.
In this qualitative study, we investigate the impact of relational-focused small group online discussions on students enrolled in two online teacher preparation courses. Utilizing feminist theory and the community of inquiry framework we explore the intersection between community, identity, and deep learning. Data for this study included observations of teacher candidates, artifacts of their meetings, and reflection responses. The results indicate relational-type small group online discussions provide opportunities to expand accessibility and equity through community development and deep learning while also impacting future teachers' identities. The recommendations we share, while not generalizable in the traditional sense, may also apply to other online post-secondary courses and programs.
Writing remains a staple of academic evaluation instruments, and for good reason. Few other tools come close to writing in assessment of the student's ability to formulate coherent arguments, demonstrate critical thinking, and present explanations. Conscientious instructors mark-up and comment on student writing, evaluating its success in meeting content goals, structure, relevance of evidence, grammar, mechanics, and style. It is an exhausting and time-consuming process but remains the single best way to support developing writers and thinkers. Technology to detect patterns of errors and to offer feedback has evolved over time, but can the programs do what professors do? This chapter provides a status report on automated writing evaluation and its role in higher education. A balance can be struck between the efficiency of tech tools and professor judgment. Recommendations for automating and expediting the review of student writing are offered, with a focus on remote learning environments.
span>With the growth of online courses and programs in higher education, considerable concerns emerge about student feelings of isolation and disconnectedness in the online learning environment. A research study was conducted to develop and validate an instrument that can be used to measure perceptions of connectedness of students enrolled in online programs or certification programs in higher education. The instrument consists of 25 items and has four scales: (a) community, (b) comfort, (c) facilitation, and (d) interaction and collaboration. One hundred and forty-six online learners who were enrolled in courses at a Turkish university completed the online questionnaire. Results of a factor and reliability analysis confirmed that the instrument is a valid and reliable measure of students’ perceived connectedness in an online certificate program.
<input id="jsProxy" onclick="if(typeof(jsCall)=='function'){jsCall();}else{setTimeout('jsCall()',500);}" type="hidden" /
The focus of this chapter is on a framework that has drawn considerable interest in creating collaborative communities of inquiry in online learning environments (Garrison, Anderson & Archer, 2000). The goal is to provide an overview and update of the Community of Inquiry Framework with a particular focus on social, cognitive and teaching presence that constitute the framework. Creating and sustaining a community of inquiry requires an understanding of the progressive or developmental nature of each of the presences and how they interact. This chapter will explore what constitutes each of the presences and implications for practice. Chapter Preview
Top
Community Of Inquiry
A community of inquiry is not a new perspective in higher education. It builds upon existing collaborative-constructivist educational assumptions that have historically been identified with higher education. Moreover, many of the constructs and rationale evolved from the research literature in adult and higher education. At the same time, however, the assumptions of this framework foreshadow a new era of distance education. It reflects much of the work being done in the area of online learning. The concept of a community of inquiry is being used extensively to understand and guide the design and delivery of online learning experiences.
A community of inquiry goes beyond accessing information and focuses on the elements of an educational experience that facilitate the creation of communities of learners actively and collaboratively engaged in exploring, creating meaning, and confirming understanding (i.e., inquiry). Constructing knowledge through discourse and shared understanding requires more than disseminating information either through a study package or lecturing. It requires a commitment to and participation in a community of learners that will support critical reflection and collaborative engagement. This deep and meaningful approach to learning is core to a community of inquiry and is becoming a practical necessity in an era where the creation of relevant and timely knowledge is of paramount importance.
The Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework recognizes the importance of the environment in shaping the educational experience. A CoI is a collaborative environment founded upon open but purposeful communication. The essential elements in this process are social, cognitive and teaching presence. It is in the overlap of the three presences where the essence of a community of inquiry exists and meaningful collaboration occurs. The elements of the CoI framework can be found in Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Purchase this chapter to continue reading all 4 pages >
The role of social presence as defined by the community of inquiry (CoI) framework is critiqued through a review of recent literature. Evidence is presented that questions the actual extent of knowledge co-construction that occurs in most higher education settings and therefore challenges the framework's underlying assumption of the need for sustained, contiguous, two-way communication in higher-level online learning environments. The CoI framework has evolved from the description of a learning process within a social constructivist paradigm to an empirically testable construct in an objectivist paradigm. Related research results indicate that social presence does not impact cognitive presence in a meaningful way and that best teaching practices suggested by CoI-based studies are informed by objectivist, cognitively oriented learning theories. These suggest that higher-order cognition may be achieved through wide and varied combinations of learner-teacher, learner-content, and learner-learner interaction. Controlled studies can and should be undertaken to compare learning outcomes using sustained, contiguous, two-way communication to other learning models. To facilitate this, subcategories of social and teaching presences need to be revamped and analysis adjusted to separate processes that support explicitly group-based learning activities from those used by individual students.
As the growth of online programs continues to rapidly accelerate, concern over the retention of the online learner is increasing. Educational administrators at institutions offering online courses, those fully online or brick and mortars, are eager to promote student achievement. Retention is critically important, not just for student success, but also for the success of these institutions of higher education. Models for understanding student persistence in the face-to-face environment are well established; however, many of the variables in these constructs are not present in the online environment or they manifest in significantly different ways. With attrition rates higher than in face-to-face programs, the development of models to explain online retention is considered imperative. This study moves in that direction by exploring the relationship between student demographics and interactions, and retention at a large online university. Analysis of data, which included an n of 20,569, provides an illustration of the importance of transfer credit and the consistency of activity in predicting continued enrollment.
This paper describes survey research of fourteen online courses where instructors and students were asked their perceptions about the challenges and essential elements of community in online classes. Results show that both instructors and students believe building community is very important. The majority of both students and instructors perceived it to be harder to build community online than in traditional classes. Additionally, while the majority of students and instructors both identified the same elements for building online community, there were significant ranking differences. Most striking among the differences was that students ranked instructor modeling as the most important element in building online community, while instructors ranked it fourth. Implications of these findings are discussed and recommendations provided for how instructors can model community behaviors in their online classes.
This paper builds on the model we have developed for creating quality online learning environments for higher education. In that model we argue that college-level online learning needs to reflect what we know about learning in general, what we understand about learning in higher-education contexts, and our emerging knowledge of learning in largely asynchronous online environments. Components of the model include a focus on learner roles, knowledge building, assessment, community, and various forms of "presence." In this paper we focus on two components—teaching presence and community—and review the rationale and benefits for an emphasis on community in online learning environments. We argue that learning is social in nature and that online learning environments can be designed to reflect and leverage the social nature of learning. We suggest that previous research points to the critical role that community can play in building and sustaining productive learning and that teaching presence, defined as the core roles of the online instructor, is among the most promising mechanism for developing online learning community. We present a multi-institutional study of 2,036 students across thirty-two different colleges that supports this claim and provides insight into the relationship between online learning community and teaching presence. Factor and regression analysis indicate a significant link between students' sense of learning community and their recognition of effective instructional design and directed facilitation on the part of their course instructors—and that student gender plays a small role in sense of learning community. We conclude with recommendations for online course design, pedagogy, and future research.
This paper explores four issues that have emerged from the research on social, cognitive and teaching presence in an online community of inquiry. The early research in the area of online communities of inquiry has raised several issues with regard to the creation and maintenance of social, cognitive and teaching presence that require further research and analysis. The other overarching issue is the methodological validity associated with the community of inquiry framework.The first issue is about shifting social presence from socio-emotional support to a focus on group cohesion (from personal to purposeful relationships). The second issue concerns the progressive development of cognitive presence (inquiry) from exploration to resolution. That is, moving discussion beyond the exploration phase. The third issue has to do with how we conceive of teaching presence (design, facilitation, direct instruction). More specifically, is there an important distinction betweenfacilitation and direct instruction? Finally, the methodological issue concerns qualitative transcript analysis and the validity of the coding protocol.
"Going the Distance: Online Education in the United States, 2011" is the ninth annual report on the state of online learning in U.S. higher education. The survey is designed, administered and analyzed by the Babson Survey Research Group. Data collection is conducted in partnership with the College Board. This year's study, like those for the previous eight years, is aimed at answering fundamental questions about the nature and extent of online education. Based on responses from more than 2,500 colleges and universities, the study addresses: Is online learning strategic? After remaining steady for several years, the proportion of chief academic officers saying that online education is critical to their long-term strategy took an upward turn in both 2010 and 2011. Sixty-five percent of all reporting institutions said that online learning was a critical part of their long-term strategy, a small increase from sixty-three percent in 2010. The year-to-year change was greatest among the for-profit institutions, which increased from fifty-one percent agreeing in 2009 to sixty-nine percent in 2011. For-profit institutions are the most likely to have included online learning as a part of their strategic plan. (Contains 4 footnotes.) [For the previous report, "Class Differences: Online Education in the United States, 2010," see ED529952.]
This paper presents a tool developed for the purpose of assessing teaching presence in online courses that make use of computer conferencing, and preliminary results from the use of this tool. The method of analysis is based on Garrison, Anderson, and Archer's [1] model of critical thinking and practical inquiry in a computer conferencing context. The concept of teaching presence is constitutively defined as having three categories – design and organization, facilitating discourse, and direct instruction. Indicators that we search for in the computer conference transcripts identify each category. Pilot testing of the instrument reveals interesting differences in the extent and type of teaching presence found in different graduate level online courses.
This article reports on the multi-institutional development and validation of an instrument that attempts to operationalize Garrison, Anderson and Archer's Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework (2000). The results of the study suggest that the instrument is a valid, reliable, and efficient measure of the dimensions of social presence and cognitive presence, thereby providing additional support for the validity of the CoI as a framework for constructing effective online learning environments. While factor analysis supported the idea of teaching presence as a construct, it also suggested that the construct consisted of two factors—one related to course design and organization and the other related to instructor behavior during the course. The article concludes with a discussion of potential implications of further refinement of the CoI measures for researchers, designers, administrators, and instructors.
The purpose of this study is to provide conceptual order and a tool for the use of computer-mediated communication (CMC) and computer conferencing in supporting an educational experience. Central to the study introduced here is a model of community inquiry that constitutes three elements essential to an educational transaction—cognitive presence, social presence, and teaching presence. Indicators (key words/phrases) for each of the three elements emerged from the analysis of computer-conferencing transcripts. The indicators described represent a template or tool for researchers to analyze written transcripts, as well as a guide to educators for the optimal use of computer conferencing as a medium to facilitate an educational transaction. This research would suggest that computer conferencing has considerable potential to create a community of inquiry for educational purposes.
In this paper we make the case that online learning continues to grow at a rapid rate and that understanding this innovative
mode of education requires analysis that is both conceptually and empirically driven. This study inquires into the concept
of cognitive presence a multivariate measure of significant learning derived from the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework (Garrison et al. in
Am J Distance Educ, 15(1): 3–21, 2001). The CoI framework conceptualizes online knowledge building as a result of collaborative work among members in learning
communities characterized by instructional orchestration appropriate to the online environments (teaching presence) and a supportive and collaborative online setting (social presence). We present results of a study of 5,000 online learners to attempt to further validate the CoI framework and articulate
the relationships among the constructs within it. Utilizing cluster analysis we propose that the three forms of presence that
characterize the CoI framework can be understood through an equilibrium model and that this model has important implications
for the design of online instruction and the success of collaborative online learning.
Interactivity is often discussed in constructivist approaches to education, which enable the student to evolve, understand, or construct new ideas from existing concepts. Constructivist approaches rely on active participation in the learning situation. Interaction and participation are crucial ingredients in the learning process. But interactivity, as a specific learning concept that underlies the general notions of interaction and participation, is not easily tracked and evaluated. This paper examines how to evaluate interactivity. It outlines a number of criteria and student activities to evaluate success in interactive web-based teaching. These theoretical issues are illustrated in the context of two linguistics courses that involve both web-based course delivery and face-to-face course delivery. Measures taken to achieve interactivity in these courses are discussed before proposing qualitative and quantitative criteria for evaluating interactivity. Teachers in higher education can encourage students to have a more positive attitude through effective ways of increasing interaction, such as structuring the learning environment in such a way as to achieve a 'conversational learning community', a learning model that promotes informal, relaxed, and interactive communities of learners and teachers.
In this paper we examine the Community of Inquiry framework (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2000) suggesting that the model may be enhanced through a fuller articulation of the roles of online learners. We present the results of a study of 3165 students in online and hybrid courses from 42 two- and four-year institutions in which we examine the relationship between learner self-efficacy measures and their ratings of the quality of their learning in virtual environments. We conclude that a positive relationship exists between elements of the CoI framework and between elements of a nascent theoretical construct that we label “learning presence”. We suggest that learning presence represents elements such as self-efficacy as well as other cognitive, behavioral, and motivational constructs supportive of online learner self-regulation. We suggest that this focused analysis on the active roles of online learners may contribute to a more thorough account of knowledge construction in technology-mediated environments expanding the descriptive and explanatory power of the Community of Inquiry framework. Learning presence: Towards a Theory of Self-efficacy, Self-regulation, and the Development of a Communities of Inquiry in Online and Blended Learning Environments.
With more than 4 million students enrolled in online courses in the US alone (Allen & Seaman, 2010), it is now time to inquire into the nature of instructional effort in online environments. Reflecting the community of inquiry (CoI) framework (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2000) this paper addresses the following questions: How has instructor teaching presence (Anderson, Rourke, Garrison, & Archer, 2001) traditionally been viewed by researchers? What does productive instructor effort look like in an entire course, not just the main threaded discussion? Results suggest that conventional research approaches, based on quantitative content analysis, fail to account for the majority of teaching presence behaviors and thus may significantly under represent productive online instructional effort.
This paper discusses findings of a mixed method approach to a study of the development of a community of inquiry in an online and a blended learning environment. A graduate course delivered online and in a blended format was the context of the study. Data were gathered from the Community of Inquiry Survey, transcript analysis of online discussions, and interviews with students and the course instructor. Using multiple qualitative and quantitative data sources, the goal was to explore the developmental differences of the three presences (social, teaching, and cognitive) in the community of inquiry framework and students’ perceptions of a community of inquiry. The results indicated that in both the online and blended course a community of inquiry developed and students could sense each presence. However, the findings revealed developmental differences in social and cognitive presence between the two course formats with higher perceptions in the blended course.
While Garrison and colleagues’ (2000) Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework has generated substantial interest among online learning researchers, it has yet to be subjected to extensive quantitative verification or tested for external validity. Using a sample of students from 55 online MBA courses, the findings of this study suggest strong empirical support for the framework and its ability to predict both perceived learning and delivery medium satisfaction in online management education. The paper concludes with a discussion of potential implications for online management education researchers and those interested in further study of the CoI framework.
Attrition continues to be a major issue in higher education. Attrition rates for classes taught through distance education are 10 – 20% higher than classes taught in a face-to-face setting. Educators should engage students early and often, using different learning strategies customized to the class content and the students’ pre-existing knowledge. The goal for the professor is to develop relationships with the students such that they feel comfortable in the environment. The professor should facilitate learner-learner integration and collaboration so that they will learn from one another and expand their knowledge base together. Through an integrative literature review, this article presents key concepts in online learning and a review of different methods of engaging students with the goals of enhancing the learning process and reducing attrition rates.
While Garrison and colleagues? (2000) Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework has generated substantial interest among online learning researchers, it has yet to be subjected to extensive quantitative verification or tested for external validity. Using a sample of students from 55 online MBA courses, the findings of this study suggest strong empirical support for the framework and its ability to predict both perceived learning and delivery medium satisfaction in online management education. The paper concludes with a discussion of potential implications for online management education researchers and those interested in further study of the CoI framework.
This integrated literature review examined factors associated with the ability of students to persist in an online course. Lack of persistence in online education and its' consequence of attrition, is an identified problem within the United States and internationally. Terminology has wavered between persistence and success, where each has been interchangeably used to characterize a student that completes a course and continues to program completion. Separate searchers were conducted in Academic Search Premier, CINAHL Plus, the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) Education Full Text, Ovid, and the Journal of Online Learning and Teaching (JOLT). Search terms included persistence, distance education, and online learning. Inclusion criteria included published after 1999, article from a peer-reviewed journal, and article addresses student factors leading to persistence. Exclusion criteria included article not related to factors of persistence, no original data, and article not written in English or not related to online courses. Factors associated with student persistence in an online program include satisfaction with online learning, a sense of belonging to the learning community, motivation, peer, and family support, time management skills, and increased communication with the instructor. Persistence carries the nuance of complexity beyond mere success. Factors unrelated to knowledge have the ability to provide support, thus allowing the student to overcome hardships in completing a course. If persistence factors are not present in sufficient quantity, the student may be at risk of withdrawing from an online course.
This study examined the influence of some predictors in the enhancement of persistence and students success in distance education in the two most recognised and respected distance learning institutions in Nigeria-the Distance Learning Institute (DLI) of University of Lagos and Distance Learning Centre of University of Ibadan. The need for this study arose because distance education is still, very much, in its embryonic stage in Nigeria due to the minimum deployment of technology which is the hallmark of this form of education. Four research questions were formulated to ascertain the relative contribution of each predictor to persistence and students success. A Multiple Regression Analysis converged on a eight predictor model revealed that the most important predictors for enhancing persistence and students' success are the learning conduciveness of the environment and the provision of student support services with F-ratio 75.39 and 73.03 respectively. Tutors response pattern and learners perception of course materials were found important too with F-ratio 22.01 and 15.54 respectively. While the learners home background cum occupational status and institutions social interaction were found insignificant (F-ratio 0.25 and 7.98 respectively). These findings have implications for the design of academic curriculum for distance learning programme where attention must be paid to the provision of these important predictors.
This study examines the relationship between instructional interaction and student persistence among adult students in online courses. A survey research methodology was used to examine the frequency and the method of instructional interaction in online courses, student attitudes regarding instructional interaction, and the reasons online students provide for persisting in, or withdrawing from, online courses. The results indicate that student perceptions regarding the contribution of asynchronous, discussion forum use combined with frequent use of asynchronous discussion account for 26% of the variance in course persistence rates. Consistent with the literature on adult student dropout, the findings identify additional situational and institutional barriers to persistence among students in online courses. The findings sug gest that strategies to facilitate student persistence in online courses should address online instructional techniques, faculty development, technology development, and program development.
The purpose of this study was to examine how the mode of instructional delivery, campus face-to-face or online, affected dropout relative to students' academic and demographic characteristics. A quantitative study was conducted to analyze the academic and demographic characteristics of newly admitted, matriculated degree-seeking students (N = 640) from Fall 2002 to Fall 2004 in the Master's of Business Administration and Master's in Communication Sciences and Disorders at a national research university in the southeastern United States. Demographic variables analyzed were age, gender, and ethnicity. Academic variables analyzed were program delivery mode, undergraduate grade point average, graduate grade point average at time of dropout or completion, admission test scores, and number of terms to degree completion or number of courses completed at time of dropout. Results of the study found that online students were significantly more likely to dropout than campus based students. Age was found to have a significant unique affect on dropout in both programs with older students more likely to dropout. Academic and demographic variables were not found to be significantly associated with dropout in the online formats of either program. Variables related to dropout for the campus based groups of both programs differed. Campus MBA students who dropped out were older and had higher GMAT scores while campus CSDI students who dropped out had lower undergraduate GPA's and GRE scores. Logistic regression analyses showed age and delivery format to have significant unique effects beyond other predictors on dropout in the MBA program overall while age and undergraduate GPA had significant unique effects beyond other predictors on dropout for the CSDI program.
Successful completion of online courses by community college students is an issue both at the national and local level. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore community college student perceptions of online learning within the theoretical construct of the Community of Inquiry (CoI) model, which describes the manner in which the elements of social presence, teaching presence, and cognitive presence interact to create an educational experience. An online questionnaire, interviews, and artifact reviews were employed in the study. Interpretive analysis was utilized to identify themes and provide insights into student perceptions of satisfaction and success with online learning. The findings of the study revealed aspects of community college student perceptions about online courses, related these perceptions to the social presence, teaching presence, and cognitive presence components of the Community of Inquiry model, and provided examples of successful instructional design and course facilitation techniques utilized in the online courses. The study findings provided insights about student perceptions related to communication and interaction, isolation, preferred course activities, and the positive impact of prompt and helpful instructor feedback. Recommendations for practical applications by instructional designers and instructors are provided.
The purpose of this paper is to report on the findings of a study examining the relationships between community and student success in online learning. The study was conducted on undergraduate students enrolled in online courses at an accredited university on the east coast of the U.S. Results of the study indicate a strong correlation between learner interaction and engagement, sense of community, and success in online learning.
This study employed a quantitative research design to examine the predictive relationships between social presence and course retention as well as final grade in community college online courses. Social presence is defined as the degree of one's feeling, perception and reaction to another intellectual entity in the online environment. Course final grades included A, B. C, D, F, I, or W. Course retention was defined as successfully completed a course with an A to C grade. The results of the binary and ordinal logistic regression analyses suggest that social presence is a significant predictor of course retention and final grade in the community college online environment. Two effective interventions are recommended: establishing integrated social and learning communities; and building effective blended learning programs.
Using a case study approach, this study explored the participants' perceptions of building learning communities in online courses in an online MBA program. The findings suggested that students felt a sense of belonging to a learning community when they took online courses in this program. The study found positive relationships between sense of learning community and perceived learning engagement, course satisfaction, and learning outcomes. In addition, interview findings revealed mixed perceptions of both online instructors and students with regard to the values and strategies for building learning communities in online courses. Many instructors have a weak awareness of online community and low value of its learning impact. The existing technology may still be a barrier without the supportive structure to enhance bonding within the online community. To design online courses for a learning community, the results suggest a more systematic instructional plan needs to be adopted to integrate elements of a learning community across different levels. (Contains 2 tables.)
The purpose of this paper is to report on the results of a study that examines whether the Community of Inquiry (CoI) dimensions of social, teaching, and cognitive presence distinctively exist in e-learning environments. The rest of the paper is organized as follows. First, the author will briefly review recent studies on the dimensions of this framework: social, cognitive, and teaching presence. Second, the author discusses the development of the sample of MBA students in online courses over a two-year period at a Midwestern U.S. university and the items used to measure the CoI dimensions. Next, the author will describe the results of an exploratory factor analysis, including an interpretation of the emerging factors. Finally, the author will discuss how these findings relate to conclusions presented in Garrison's review of recent research related to the CoI and present some possible directions for future research. (Contains 2 tables.)
Although the professional literature identifies feelings of alienation and low sense of community as factors that help explain relatively low student persistence rates in distance education programs, no studies have attempted to investigate the relationship between these two constructs. Accordingly, the present study uses canonical correlation analysis to determine if and how a set of three alienation variables is related to a set of two classroom community variables in a sample (N = 117) of online graduate students. The results suggest that the two sets of variables are related along two reliable multivariate dimensions. Implications for college teaching are discussed.
This article introduces the special issue on the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework which is being published ten years after the model was first introduced. Since that time the CoI framework has been used to guide and inform both research and practice worldwide. We are very honored to have articles by the original three authors of the CoI model in this special issue. The special issue also contains articles by leading CoI researchers as well as some scholars who are just beginning to use the framework.
Experience and Educationis the best concise statement on education ever published by John Dewey, the man acknowledged to be the pre-eminent educational theorist of the twentieth century. Written more than two decades after Democracy and Education(Dewey's most comprehensive statement of his position in educational philosophy), this book demonstrates how Dewey reformulated his ideas as a result of his intervening experience with the progressive schools and in the light of the criticisms his theories had received. Analysing both "traditional" and "progressive" education, Dr. Dewey here insists that neither the old nor the new education is adequate and that each is miseducative because neither of them applies the principles of a carefully developed philosophy of experience. Many pages of this volume illustrate Dr. Dewey's ideas for a philosophy of experience and its relation to education. He particularly urges that all teachers and educators looking for a new movement in education should think in terms of the deeped and larger issues of education rather than in terms of some divisive "ism" about education, even such an "ism" as "progressivism." His philosophy, here expressed in its most essential, most readable form, predicates an American educational system that respects all sources of experience, on that offers a true learning situation that is both historical and social, both orderly and dynamic.
Online and blended Communities of Inquiry: Exploring the Developmental and Perceptual Differences. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning
- Z Akyol
- D Garrison
- M Ozden
Akyol, Z., Garrison, D., & Ozden, M. (2009). Online
and blended Communities of Inquiry: Exploring the
Developmental and Perceptual Differences. International Review of Research in Open and Distance
Learning, 10(6), 183-190.
Does the community of inquiry framework predict outcmes in online MBA courses? International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning
- J Arbaugh
Arbaugh, J. (2008). Does the community of inquiry
framework predict outcmes in online MBA courses?
International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 9(2), 1-21.
MOOC Pedagogy: Gleaning Good Practice from Existing MOOCs.
- M.Bali
Bali, M. (2014). MOOC Pedagogy: Gleaning Good
Practice from Existing MOOCs. MERLOT Journal
of Online Learning and Teaching, 10(1), 44-56.
The skillful teacher
- S Brookfield
Brookfield, S. (2006). The skillful teacher. San
Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Online Education: Promise and Problems.
- T.Capra
Capra, T. (2011). Online Education: Promise and
Problems. MERLOT Journal of Online Learning,
7(2), 288-293.
Developing a sense of community in an online environment.
- D.Colachio
Colachio, D. (2007). Developing a sense of community in an online environment. International Journal
of Learning, 14(1), 161-165.
Deviant reactions to the college pressure cooker: A test of general strain theory on undergraduate students in the United States
- T R Smith
- M Langenbacher
- C Kudlac
- A G Fera
Smith, T. R., Langenbacher, M., Kudlac, C., & Fera,
A. G. (2013). Deviant reactions to the college pressure cooker: A test of general strain theory on undergraduate students in the United States. International
Journal of Criminal Justice Sciences, 8(2), 88-104.
An analysis of student persistence in online education
- S Trello
Trello, S. (2007). An analysis of student persistence
in online education. International Journal of Information and Communication Technology Education,
3(3), 47-62. doi:10.4018/jicte.2007070105
Key elements of building online community: Comparing faculty and student perceptions
- P Vesley
- L Bloom
- J Sherlock
Vesley, P., Bloom, L., & Sherlock, J. (2007). Key
elements of building online community: Comparing
faculty and student perceptions. Journal of Online
Learning and Teaching, 3(3), 234-246.
Deviant reactions to the college pressure cooker: A test of general strain theory on undergraduate students in the United States.
- T. R.Smith
Communities of inquiry in online learning: Social, teaching and cognitive presence
- D Garrison
Key elements of building online community: Comparing faculty and student perceptions.
- P.Vesley