This document discusses social presence in online learning. It defines social presence and reviews research showing relationships between social presence and student satisfaction, development of learning communities, and perceived learning. The author presents a conceptual framework and measures social presence using mixed methods, including word counts, content analysis of discussions, and comparing discussions with high and low social presence. Key findings are that group size, instructional task, and past relationships impact social presence, and a one-size-fits-all approach does not work given situational variables. Other findings include the importance of the unit of analysis and differences between survey and indicator measures of social presence.