Establishing Social Presence for an Engaging Online Teaching and Learning Experience
Published | 2021 |
Journal | International Journal of TESOL Studies Volume 3, Issue 1, Pages 162-178 |
Country | Singapore, Asia |
ABSTRACT
Unlike face-to-face classes where physical presence is a given, the lack of “real” interpersonal connections to establish a strong social presence in online teaching and learning experience affects student learning. Students tend to feel isolated and disengaged. This paper explores how I sought to create a supportive environment for my students reading a critical thinking and communication module for community leadership during an Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) experience amid the pandemic last year in 2020. Using the Community of Inquiry framework as a lens to reflect on how well I established social presence in the online environment, I thematically analysed student qualitative feedback on their learning experiences. This investigation also serves as an inquiry into the effectiveness of the dialogic scaffolding pedagogical framework I adopted for the module. Moreover, this study compliments a reflection on the impact of my teaching philosophy that students are social learners before they become independent learners. I believe that students learn not as isolated beings, but as active members of a community; what they learn and how they make sense of knowledge depends on the social context in which they learn. The findings revealed the effectiveness of the application of dialogic scaffolding principles, which focuses on the orchestration of talk to scaffold student learning and co-construct understanding. With a socio-constructivist view of teaching, many tutors could consider their classes of students as communities of participants in learning. The paper concludes with recommendations for strategies that tutors can adopt to establish a supportive environment for physically separated communities of learners.Keywords | emergency remote teaching · social presence · dialogic scaffolding · online teaching and learning |
CoI focus | Social presence |
Methodology | Qualitative |
Population | Undergraduate |
Study design | Student evaluation feedback |
Data analysis | Thematic analysis |
Contribution | Practical |
Sample size | 72 |
Finding | "Meaning-making, or pedagogic semiosis in any classroom, especially in online environments, is also a result of the interplay of a repertoire of semiotic resources, not just language alone, expressed through a range of modalities." |
Language | English |
ISSN | 2633-6898 |
Refereed | Yes |
Rights | CC BY |
DOI | 10.46451/ijts.2021.03.04 |
Export | BibTex · EndNote · Tagged XML · Google Scholar |
AVAILABLE FILES
Viewed by 0 distinct readers
COMMUNITY NOTES
The evaluations below represent the judgements of our readers and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the CoI editors.
POST A COMMENT
SIMILAR RECORDS
Student Engagement in Online and Blended Learning in a Higher Education Institution in the Middle East: Challenges and Solutions
Fazza, Hany; Mahgoub, Mohamed
This paper aims to identify challenges to students’ engagement in online learning at the Qatar branch campus of America’s Georgetown University, and to propose solutions. Specifically, it: 1) identifies challenges ...
Match: social presence; thematic analysis
Visualising the dynamics of online learning communities in online and blending learning courses: Experiences from three university courses
Chuang, Victoria Jae; Ceballos, Alejandro; Bundgaard, Helle; Furu, Peter; et al.
Online learning communities are a foundational element of online and blended learning. Many learning activities in online and blended learning courses require students to collaborate and work together with their peers. ...
Match: experience; social presence
Teaching and social presences supporting basic needs satisfaction in online learning environments: How can presences and basic needs happily meet online?
Turk, Murat; Heddy, Benjamin C.; Danielson, Robert W.
This study examined the hypothesized relationships between perceived teaching presence and social presence accounting for social-contextual factors in online learning environments and online students’ basic ...
Match: social presence
Exploring social and cognitive presences in communities of inquiry to perform higher cognitive tasks
Tirado Morueta, Ramón; Maraver López, Pablo; Hernando Gómez, Ángel; Harris, Victor W.
The purpose of the current study was to explore social and cognitive relationships among students when they are solving complex cognitive tasks in online discussion forums (self-regulated). An online course targeting ...
Match: social presence
Creating Community in EdD Programs during COVID-19: Challenges, Strategies, and Opportunities
Adams, Alyson; Jeter, Gage
Building community in online EdD programs can be a challenge, and the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of doing so. In this essay, we will situate community building within the larger Community of ...
Match: social presence
E-collaborative learning experience, interdependencies of presences and learning outcomes: evidence of mediating and moderating effects
Yussiff, Alimatu-Saadia; Ahmad, Wan Fatimah Wan; Mustapha, Emy Elyanee
Researchers have reported mixed-findings regarding the impact of individual instruction, the class as a whole, and the use of small-group on learning outcomes. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of ...
Match: experience; social presence
Exploring presence in online learning through three forms of computer-mediated discourse analysis
Zhu, Meina; Herring, Susan C.; Bonk, Curtis J.
This case study examined patterns in online communication using computer-mediated discourse analysis to better understand how teaching presence, social presence, and cognitive presence are manifested in an online ...
Match: social presence
Developing a community of inquiry instrument: Testing a measure of the Community of Inquiry framework using a multi-institutional sample
Arbaugh, J. B.; Cleveland-Innes, Martha; Diaz, Sebastian R.; Garrison, D. Randy; et al.
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 ...
Match: social presence
20 Years of the Community of Inquiry Framework
Castellanos-Reyes, Daniela
The Community of Inquiry framework is a collaborative-constructivist process model that describes the essential elements of a successful online higher education learning experience. This history column entry briefly ...
Match: social presence
New exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis insights into the community of inquiry survey
Kozan, Kadir; Richardson, Jennifer C.
This study has the aim of investigating the factor structure of an adapted version of the Community of Inquiry survey developed by Arbaugh et al. (2008). For this purpose, both exploratory and confirmatory analyses were ...
Match: social presence