This document discusses the importance of social presence and instructor presence in online learning. It defines social presence as the degree to which participants feel socially and emotionally engaged when communicating online. Several studies cited found that higher levels of social presence and instructor presence led to improved student satisfaction, interaction, learning outcomes, and retention. Specific strategies mentioned for building presence include using instructor voice feedback, asynchronous video, and actively engaging with and showing awareness of student needs. The document also summarizes a study that found online Latino students in community colleges experienced a greater achievement gap compared to white students, which interview subjects attributed to a lack of rapport and relationship with instructors in the online setting.

2. Social Presence by Michelle Pacansky-Brock is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0
International License.
!
To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/
licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/deed.en_US.

3. CC-BY-ND B Rosen

4. CC-BY-NC-ND Automania

5. CC-BY-ND B Rosen
ALIENATION
contributes to lower online retention & persistence
(Rovai & Wighting, 2005)

6. 2flavorsof online learning

7. CC-BY-NC-ND Selbe B

8. CC-BY-NC-ND Mark DeSouza

9. 2ingredientsof socializing online learning

10. presence
instructor
1 visible
Savery, (2005).
actively engaged
aware of and sensitive to
student needs

11. social
presence
2

12. "the degree to which participants are able to
project themselves affectively within the medium"
(Garrison, 1997, p. 6)
presence
social
2"degree to which a person is perceived as a 'real' person in
mediated communication"
"the degree of person to person awareness"
(Tu, 2000, p. 1662)
sense of belonging to a community (Picciano, 2002)
"feeling that others are involved in the communication
process" (Whiteman, 2002, p. 6)
(Gunawardena & Zittle, 1997, p. 9)

13. social
presence student satisfaction
(Gunawardena & Zittle, 1997;
Rovai & Barnum, 2003)
interaction!
(Tu, 2000; Stein & Wanstreet, 2003)
depth of learning!
(Picciano, 2002; Richardson &
Swan, 2003; Rovai & Barnum, 2003)
2

14. CC-BY-NC-SA Zanthia

15. CC-BY-SA Quinn Dumbrowski
what will you make?

16. CC-BY-NC Thomas Hawk
be real

17. Instructor voice feedback in online
classes has been found to improve:
• perceived distance of instructor (more like "in class")!
• perception that instructor cares!
• feeling of student involvement!
• student motivation!
• student retention of information
(Ice, Curtis, Phillips, & Wells, 2007; Oomen-Early et al., 2008, Olesove,
Richardson, Weasenforth, & Meloni, 2011)

18. My instructor's voice
comments increased my sense
that she was actively present
in my learning experience
(compared to text alone).
96% !strongly agreed or agreed
101 students surveyed, 88% response rate
Pacansky-Brock, 2008
Online Student VoiceThread Survey:

19. My instructor's video
comments increased my sense
that she was actively present
in my learning experience
(compared to text alone).
98% !strongly agreed or agreed
101 students surveyed, 88% response rate
Pacansky-Brock, 2008
Online Student VoiceThread Survey:

20. the human presence model
Santa Barbara City College
Dr. Doug Hersh
Kolowich, S. (2010). The human element. Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved from:
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/03/29/lms#sthash.07gqFjVE.dpbs

21. the human presence model
• 1 student group accessed non-human presence model
• 1 student group accessed human presence model
Semester-long research study
Kolowich, S. (2010). The human element. Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved from:
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/03/29/lms#sthash.07gqFjVE.dpbs

22. the human presence model
• 5% higher course completion rates
• 9.4% increase in academic success
End of semester results, human
presence group yielded:
Kolowich, S. (2010). The human element. Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved from:
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/03/29/lms#sthash.07gqFjVE.dpbs

23. the online penalty
Dr. Raymond Kaupp
Cabrillo College
• Known White/Latino achievement gap in CA community
colleges (CCCs)
• Achievement gap increases 44% for Latinos when
data is examines online classes
• Research sample: CCC faculty, administrators &
online Latino students
• Online success rate for Latinos is 7.2% lower than White
students
Kaupp, R. (Spring 2012). Journal of Applied Research in the Community College, (19)2, 8-16.

24. the online penalty
Dr. Raymond Kaupp
Cabrillo College
“What factors contribute to the inequity between
White and Latino students in online CCC classes?”
Interviews with 10 faculty & administrators
responsible for implementing online instruction:!
• student deficiencies in motivation, technology
& language
Kaupp, R. (Spring 2012). Journal of Applied Research in the Community College, (19)2, 8-16.

25. the online penalty
Dr. Raymond Kaupp
Cabrillo College
“What factors contribute to the inequity between
White and Latino students in online CCC classes?”
Interviews with 10 online Latino students who had
the choice to learn online or face-to-face:!
• no evidence of student deficiencies found
• lack of relationship/rapport with instructor was key theme
Kaupp, R. (Spring 2012). Journal of Applied Research in the Community College, (19)2, 8-16.

26. CC-BY-NC-ND Mark DeSouza

27. Borup, J., West, R. E., & Graham, C. R. (2012). Improving online social presence through asynchronous
video. The Internet and Higher Education. 15(3), 195-203!
!
Ice, P., Curtis, R., Phillips, P. Wells, J. (2007). Using asynchronous audio feedback to enhance teaching
presence and students' sense of community. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 11(2), 3-25.!
!
Garrison, D. R. (1997). Computer Conferencing and distance education: Cognitive and social presence
issues. In The New Learning Environment: A Global Perspective. Proceedings of the International
Conference on Data Engineering World Conference, Pennsylvania State University, University Park,
1997.!
!
Gunawardena, C. N., & Zittle, F., (1997). Social presence as a predictor of satisfaction within a computer
mediated conferencing environment. American Journal of Distance Education, 11(3), 8-25.!
!
Kaupp, R. (Spring 2012). Journal of Applied Research in the Community College, (19)2, 8-16.!
!
Picciano, A. (2002). Beyond student perceptions: Issues of interaction, presence, and performance in an
online course. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks. 6(1), July 2002, 21-40.!
!
Pacansky-Brock, M. (in-press). Learning out loud: Increasing voluntary voice comments in online
classes. In Lowenthal, P., York, C., & Richardson, J. (Eds.). Online learning: Common misconceptions,
benefits, and challenges. Nova Science Publishers.!
References

28. !
!
Richardson, J., & Swan, K., (2003). Examining social presence in online courses in relation to students'
perceived learning and satisfaction. Juornal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 7(1), February 2003, 68-88.!
!
Rovai, A. P., & Barnum, K.T. (2003).On-Line course effectivenss: An analysis of student interaction and
perceptions of learning. Journal of Distance Learning, 18(1), 57-73.!
!
Rovai, A. P., & Wighting, M. J. (2005). Feelings of alienation and community among higher education
students in a virtual classroom. The Internet and Higher Education, 8, 97-110.!
Savery, J. (2005). Be vocal: Characteristics of successful online instructors. Journal of Interactive Online
Learning, 4(2), 141-152.!
!
Stein, D., & Wanstreet, C. E. (2003). Role of social presence, choice of online or face-to-face group format,
and satisfaction with perceived knowledge gained in a distancelearning environment. Midwest Research to
Practice Conference in Adult, Continuuing, and Community Education. !
!
Tu, C. H. (2000). On-line learning migration: From social learning theory to social presence theory in a
CMC environment. Journal of Network and Computer Applications, 2, 27-37!
!
Wenger, E. (1999). Communities of Practice: Learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge, England:
Cambridge University Press.!
!
Whiteman, J.A.M. (2002). Interpersonal Communication in Computer Mediated Learning. White paper.
References (cont'd)

29. !
!
Pacansky-Brock, M. (2012). Best practices for teaching with emerging technologies. New York: Routledge.!
!
Palloff, R. M. & Pratt, K. (2005). Collaborating online: Learning together in community. San Francisco: Jossey-
Bass.
References