Teaching Presence in Asynchronous Online Classes: It’s Not Just a Façade
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24059/olj.v27i2.3231Keywords:
Instructor Presence, AsynchronousAbstract
The expanding scale and scope of online education options, both in terms of design and delivery, creates significant questions that increasingly warrant research attention. This empirical study investigates students’ perceptions and evaluative judgments of a number of methods of setting and sustaining Instructor Presence in an online asynchronous course. Based on factor analysis of our data, we propose refining the idea of Instructor Presence in terms of stylistic versus substantive methods. Tests of student survey data indicate that, while students see value in both types of Instructor Presence, they perceive significantly greater benefit from substantive relative to stylistic methods.
References
Anderson, Terry, Rourke Liam, D. Randy Garrison, and Walter Archer. "Assessing teaching presence in a computer conferencing context." Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 5(2): 1-17 (2001). https://doi.org/10.24059/olj.v5i2.1875
Baker, C. (2010). The impact of instructor immediacy and presence for online student affective learning, cognition, and motivation. Journal of Educators Online, 7(1), n1. https://doi.org/10.9743/JEO.2010.1.2
Bangert, A. (2008). The influence of social presence and teaching presence on the quality of online critical inquiry. Journal of Computing in Higher Education, 20(1), 34-61.
https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03033431
Cormier, A., & Siemens, G. (2010). Through the open door: Open courses as research, learning and engagement. EDUCAUSE Review, 45(4) 30-39. https://er.educause.edu/articles/2010/8/through-the-open-door-open-courses-as-research-learning-and-engagement
Dixson, M. D., (2010). Creating effective student engagement in online courses: What do students find engaging? Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 10(2), 1-13.
Dockter, J. (2016). The problem of teaching presence in transactional theories of distance education. Computers and Composition, 40, 73-86.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compcom.2016.03.009
Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T. & Archer, W. (2001) Critical thinking, cognitive presence, and computer conferencing in distance education, American Journal of Distance Education, 15:1, 7-23, https://doi.org/10.1080/08923640109527071
Garrison, D. R., & Cleveland-Innes, M. (2005). Facilitating cognitive presence in online learning: Interaction is not enough. The American Journal of Distance Education, 19(3), 133-148. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15389286ajde1903_2
Hajibayova, L. (2016): Students' Viewpoint: What Constitutes Presence in an Online Classroom?, Cataloging & Classification Quarterly. https://doi.org/10.1080/01639374.2016.1241972
Hannafin, M. and Land, S. (2000) Technology and student-centered learning in higher education: Issues and practices. Journal of Computing in Higher Education, 12, 3-30. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03032712
Imlawi, J., Gregg, D., & Karimi, J. (2015). Student engagement in course-based social networks: The impact of instructor credibility and use of communication. Computers & Education, 88, 84-96. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2015.04.015
Kendall, J. E., & Kendall, K. E. (2017). Enhancing Online Executive Education Using Storytelling: An Approach to Strengthening Online Social Presence. Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education, 15(1), 62-81. https://doi.org/10.1111/dsji.12121
Ladyshewsky, R. K. (2013). IP in online courses and student satisfaction. International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 7(1), 13. https://doi.org/10.20429/ijsotl.2013.070113
Lear, J. L., Isernhagen, J. C., LaCost, B. A., King, J. W., (2009). Instructor presence for web-based classes. Delta Pi Epsilon Journal, LI(2), 86-98.
Lightweis, S. K., (2013). College success: A fresh look at differentiated instruction and other student-centered strategies. College Quarterly, 16(3). https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1018053.pdf
Lowenthal, P. R., & Parscal, T. (2008). Teaching presence. The Learning Curve, 3(4), 1-2.
Mandemach, B. J., Gonzales, R. M., & Garrett, A. L., (2006). An examination of online instructor presence via threaded discussion participation. Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 2(4), 248-260. https://jolt.merlot.org/vol2no4/mandernach.pdf
Martin, J., (2019). Building relationships and increasing engagement in the virtual classroom: Practical tools for the online instructor. Journal of Educators Online, 16(1). https://doi.org/10.9743/jeo.2019.16.1.9
McCarty, W., Crow, S. R., Mims, G. A., Potthoff, D. E., & Harvey, J. S., (2016). Renewing teaching practices: Differentiated instruction in the college classroom. Journal of Curriculum, Teaching, Learning, and Leadership in Education, 1(1), 35-44.
Miller, Melinda G., Debbie L. Hahs-Vaughn, and Vicky Zygouris-Coe. (2014) "A confirmatory factor analysis of teaching presence within online professional development." Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 18, no. 1. https://doi.org/10.24059/olj.v18i1.333
Park, C., & Kim, (2020). Perception of instructor presence and its effects on learning experience in online classes. Journal of Information Technology Education: Research, 19, 475-488.
Richardson, J.C., Koehler, A. A., Besser, E. D., Caskurlu, S., Lim, J. and Meuller, C. M. (2015). Conceptualizing and Investigating Instructor Presence in Online Learning Environments. International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 16(3): 256-297.
https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v16i3.2123
Shea, P., E. Fredericksen, A. Pickett, and W. Pelz. A preliminary investigation of teaching presence in the SUNY Learning Network. In J. Bourne and J.C. Moore, (eds.), Elements of Quality Online Education: Practice and Direction, 279-312. Needham, MA: Sloan Consortium, 2003.
Sheridan, K. and Kelly, M. A. (2010). The Indicators of instructor presence that are important to students in online courses. MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 6(4): 767-779.
Skramstad, E., Schlosser, C., & Orellana, A. (2012). Teaching Presence and Communication Timeliness in Asynchronous Online Courses. The Quarterly Review of Distance Education, 13, 183-188.
Song, H., Kim, J., & Park, N., (2019). I know my professor: Teacher self-disclosure in online education and mediating role of social presence. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 25(5), 448-455. https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2018.1455126
Stewart, C., Bachman, C., Babb, S., (2009). Replacing professor monologues with online dialogues: A constructivist approach to online course template design. Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 5(3), 1-11.
Subban, P., (2006). Differentiated instruction: A research basis. International Education Journal, 7(7), 935-947.
Swan, K. & Shih, L.F. (2005). On the nature and development of social presence in online course discussions. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 9(3), 115−136. https://doi.org/10.24059/olj.v9i3.1788
Wise, A., Chang, J., Duffy, T., & del Valle, R. (2004). The effects of teacher social presence on student satisfaction, engagement, and learning. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 31(3), 247-271. https://doi.org/10.2190/V0LB-1M37-RNR8-Y2U1
Young, W. A., Hicks, B. H., Villa-Lobos, D., & Franklin, T.J., (2014). Using student feedback and professor-developed multimedia to improve instructor presence and student learning. Journal of Teaching and Learning with Technology, 3(2), 12-30. https://doi.org/10.14434/jotlt.v3n2.12990
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2023 Sharon Watson, Daniel P. Sullivan, Kathryn Watson
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
As a condition of publication, the author agrees to apply the Creative Commons – Attribution International 4.0 (CC-BY) License to OLJ articles. See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
This licence allows anyone to reproduce OLJ articles at no cost and without further permission as long as they attribute the author and the journal. This permission includes printing, sharing and other forms of distribution.
Author(s) hold copyright in their work, and retain publishing rights without restrictions
