This document summarizes a study examining social presence as a motivational component in blended e-learning. The study analyzed discussion forum posts from 17 students in 4 small groups completing an online assignment over 6 weeks. Student posts were coded based on indicators of social, cognitive, and teaching presence. Emergent profiles showed varying levels of individual and group social presence over time. The study aims to understand how social presence evolves through the learning process and how it relates to collaboration, task motivation, and performance.

1. Conceptualizing Social Presence as a Motivational Component in E-Learning: a Case Study in Blended Teacher Education Ana Remesal, Rosa Colomina, Marc Clarà http://www.psyed.edu.es/grintie/?lang=en 12th ICM Porto, Sept. 2-4, 2010

3. Learning is a social process: meaning is constructed and shared among participants in time and context.

4. Different kinds of help among peers are an important sources of educational influence  collaborative learning.(Coll, 2004; Coll & Onrubia, 1997; Derry & alt. 2000;Kozulin, 1998; Mercer & Coll, 1994; Newman, Griffin & Cole, 1989; Tharp & alt., 2000; Vigotsky, 1979; Wertsch, 1985)

6. Since 2004 pilot study at UB with Moodle(GIDPE-GRINTIE), at Teacher Education.

9. Social presence (earlydefinitions) “The degree with which a person is perceived as a ‘real person’ in mediated communication”, Gunawardena & Zittle (1997).

10. Social presence (earlydefinitions) “The ability of learners to project themselves socially and affectively into a community of inquiry”, Rourke, Anderson, Garrison & Archer (1999).

11. Social presence (earlydefinitions) “A measure of the feeling of community that a learner experiences in an online environment” Tu & McIsaac (2002). “The ability of participants to identify with the community (e.g. course of study), communicate purposefully in a trusting environment, and develop interpersonal relationships by way of projecting their individual personalities” (Garrison, 2009).

12. Social presence (ourproposal) Big group - debate Small group – colaborativework Social presence as the result of individuals’ actions that contribute to the creation of a community feeling or group identity in such a way that the learning process is motivationally and emotionally supported (based on Rogers & Lea, 2005)

14. Situated motivationiscontext- and activity-sensitive.

16. Focusonthecontext.

18. First & secondsemester of TeacherEducationGraduateProgram.

19. 17 students in 3-4 self-selected 4 smallgroups.

20. Assignment: argumentativeessaybasedonclassroomobservation.

21. Moodleplatform: asynchronouscomputermediatedcommunication (forumtool).

22. Online workduring 6 weeks.

24. Basic unit of analysis:any posting fragment carrying any manifestation of social presence.

25. Contextual unit of analysis: individual posting within a discussion thread in a forum space.

26. All the individual postings of the participants were analysed:

27. Group I  74 postings

28. Group II  39 postings

29. Group III  73 postings

31. Epistolar genre of postings(Friesen, 2009).

32. Paralinguisticortographic and iconographicmarks, linguisticfillers(Yamada, 2009).

33. Figurativelanguage(Delfino, & Manca, 2007).

35. Individual-taskorientation C1 > The individual (singular subject) feels competent and/or satisfied with his/her performance or his/her expectations of good performance of the task. “If you agree, I can start to compose the first part of the text, doesn’t seem difficult!!!!” C2 > The individual (singular subject) feels competent and/or satisfied with his/her performance or his/her expectations of good performance in front of a task which he/she evaluates as challenging. “I feel a little bit lost with this assignment, well, you probably noticed already. But I’ll do my best.” C3 > The individual (singular subject) feels incompetent and/or unsatisfied with his/her performance or his/her expectations of low performance of the task. “I have changed the paragraph of conditions a bit because it was somewhat messy, but I’m not sure it’s quite clearer now, though!!!”

36. Individual-group mates orientation C4 > The individual opens him/herself up to others and offers his/her support to carry out the task without request. “I just finished work for today, now I can speed up to 200mph with the assignment!!! I attach a concept map which we could use for a start. I look forward for your comments!!!!” C5 > The individual offers his/her support after detecting some real or potential challenge. “Guys, tomorrow I won’t be at home, but don’t panic!! As soon as I get back to the net, I will catch up with your progress and make my comments. Kisses!” C6 > The individual fails to support others in the performance of the task. “aaaaahhhmmm – I’m afraid I can’t do the lit list. I’m sorry, my computer has broken down, I write from the computer lab and I don’t have the material here. Someone else jump in!”

37. Group-taskorientation C7 > The group (plural subject) feels competent and satisfied with his/her performance or his/her expectations of performance of the task. “Perfect! Our text is getting brilliant, we do very well together!!” C8 > The group (plural subject) feels competent and satisfied with his/her performance or his/her expectations of performance of a task which is evaluated as challenging. “Although it will be tough at the beginning, because it’s our first online assignment, I’m positive that WE will do great in the end!! Come on!” C9 > The group (plural subject) feels incompetent and unsatisfied with his/her performance or his/her expectations of low performance of the task. “We didn’t hurry up and got lost in nuances, and now we won’t have time to review our work. Here’s the result, guys!! ”

38. Group-membersorientation C10 > The group members, jointly or individually, contribute to create and maintain a sense of group identity. “Hi ladies and gentlemen!!, I hope we will be a united team this time, like we were the previous times!! So well-tuned.” C11 > The group members, jointly or individually, contribute to create and maintain social interaction. “COME ON, NOW MORE THAN EVER! LET’S DO OUR BEST!!! See you around here ” C12 > The group members, jointly or individually, express positive feelings of belonging to the group. “Now that we’re done, I would like you know how proud I feel of our team!! ”

39. Results A greatamount of messages show SP:

41. CategoriesIntragroup

42. CategoriesIntergroup

43. Individual profiles G.I (1)

44. Individual profiles G.I (2)

45. Individual profiles G.II

46. Individual profiles G.III

47. Individual profiles G.IV (1)

48. Individual profiles G.IV (2)

50. The categories allow to study how the participants make sense of the learning task and the learning process, how they react to difficulties and success, and how the group members contribute to a positive social climate for collaboration.

51. Two perspectives are considered: the individual by herself and the individual as a team member in direct relation with the peers (Järvelä, Volet, & Jävernoja, 2010).

52. Emergent ‘profiles’ of social presence, both at a teamlevel and individually (Murphy, & RdguezManzanares, 2006).