Title: Establishing Instructor Presence and Building an Online Learning Community
1Establishing Instructor Presence and Building an
Online Learning Community
Presented by Rena M Palloff, PhD And Keith
Pratt, PhD
2Social Presence
The Ability to portray oneself as a real person
in the online environment
- Short, Williams, and Christie (1976) defined
social presence as the degree to whicha person
is perceived as real in communication that is
conducted via some formof media - More recent studies have noted that the medium
has little to do with developing a sense of
presence - It is participant behavior online that appears
to have a greater impact onthe development of
presence - When there is a high degree of interaction
between the participants, the degree of social
presence is also high and vice versa (Stein and
Wanstreet, 2003)
3Social Presence Online Correlates with
- Increased learner satisfaction
- Greater depth of Learning
- Increased perception of Learning
- The sense of belonging to a Learning
Community
4Social Presence
- Is not just about the use of
discussion/interaction although the use of
discussion helps to create presence - It is about finding ways to create human to
human contact
5The Presence of Presence
Polhemus, et al (2001) note that some of the
indicators that social presencehas emerged in an
online class include
- The use of personal forms of address
- Acknowledgement of others
- Expression of feeling
- The use of humor and social sharing
- The use of textual symbols such as emoticons,
font colors, different fonts,
capitalization, and the use of symbols or
characters for expression
6Evidence of the Presence of Community
- Active interaction involving both course
content and personal communication - Collaborative learning evidenced by comments
directed primarily student to student rather
than student to instructor - Socially constructed meaning evidenced by
agreement or questioning, with the intent to
achieve agreement on issues of meaning - Sharing of resources among students
- Expressions of support and encouragement
exchanged between students, as well as
willingness to critically evaluate the work of
others
7For Presence to Exist, Instructors and Students
should have
- The ability to carry on an internal dialogue in
order to formulate responses - The creation of a semblance of privacy both in
terms of the space from which the person
communicates and the ability to create an
internal sense of privacy - The ability to deal with emotional issues in
textual form - The ability to create a mental picture of the
partner in the communications process - The ability to create a sense of presence
online through personalization of
communications
8Forms of Presence
Garrison, Anderson, and Archer (2000) propose 3
forms of presence inonline classes
- Social Presence
- Teaching Presence the role and function of
the instructor may be shared among the
participants further divided into two major
functions first, the selection,
organization, and design of content, activities,
and assessment and second, the facilitation
of the course. - Cognitive Presence the extent to which the
participants are able to construct meaning
through sustained communication/critical thinking
Garrison, et al stress teaching presence. We feel
social presence is the most critical.
9Three Models of Instructor Functions
10Three Models of Instructor Functions
11Week Zero
- Occurs During the First Week of the Term
- Sets the Foundation for Community Building
- Can Occur Along with Initial Exploration
into Content
12Some Week Zero Activities
- Intros/Bios
- Review of and Buy-in on Guidelines
- Ice Breaker Activities
- Web Quests (can be related to the course
content) - Syllabus Quiz
- Hopes and Fears (Expectations)
13More Ice Breaker Ideas
- View from My Window
- Last Experience with Law Enforcement
- Classmates Quiz
- Snowball
- Flavor of Ice Cream
- Others?
14Intros and Bios
- Give Students Credit for Doing Them
- Even if Students have Met F2F, have them
post an Intro they are likely to reveal
more! - If the Course Management System has a Function
to Create Profiles, encourage students to use
it - Intros can be Linked to Course Content have
students talk about their experience with
the area of study or what they hope to gain
from the course
15Naming Conventions
- Think up unusual or catchy names for
elements of the course, particularly those
that relate to Community Building - Provide some context for the name to draw
students in and encourage them to use the forum - Examples Renas Roadhouse, Keiths Kafe,
Questions for Dr. P
16Sample Naming Conventions
Renas Roadhouse Picture a country inn along a
beautiful rural road just outsidea small town
where the entire community gathers from timeto
time throughout the day. The food is good and the
coffeeis great and always flowing. There are
also weekly specials totempt you! This is the
place we can go to partake of some
casualconversation about any number of things
personal news, group problems or frustrations,
or even tangents of interest startedin the
formal course discussion left behind as the
course movedon. This is also the place that
well use to inform each other ofspecial events,
travel, and absences from the course and , of
course, tell a joke or two. Hope to see you here
and, by the way, the coffeeis on me!
17Dr. Ps Blog
I will be posting some reflections about
ourdiscussions on a weekly basis. Because
thisis a blog, some of my thoughts may be
somewhat controversial. So, feel free to
comment and to get into some discussion with me!
18Use of Multimedia for Establishing Presence
- You Tube Videos
- Short Video Clips
- Short Audio Clips with Photo
-
- My Space/Facebook
- Animated Graphic File
- Others??
19Helping Students to Establish Their Own Sense of
Presence
- The Obvious Ways
- Posting Photos or an image they think
represents them - Ice Breakers
- Intros/Bios
20Helping Students to Establish Their Own Sense of
Presence
- The Not-So-Obvious Ways
- Having students choose topics of particular
interest and facilitating a discussion on
them - Encouraging ongoing use of the social space
(i.e., weekly specials, extra discussions
introduced by them around their interests) - Chat Sessions
- Blogging
- Others??