Assessing Social Presence in an Online Course

1
Assessing Social Presence in an Online Course

• Carol Hostetter and Monique Busch
• Indiana University
• Funded in part by the Scholarship of Teaching and
  Learning

2
Statement of the Problem

• Social work education is committed to excellence
  in teaching
• Excellence in teaching involves building
  community in the classroom
• We have experienced a rapid increase in courses
  delivered entirely online
• How do we develop community in online courses?

3
What Kind of Educational Community Do We Want?

• Chickering and Gamson (1987) established the
  seven principles for good practice
• Contact between students and faculty
• Cooperation among students
• Active learning
• Prompt feedback
• Time on task
• High expectations
• Respect for diverse talents and ways of learning

4
What Kind of Educational Community Do We Want?

• The National Survey on Student Engagement
• (NSSE) found student behaviors contributing to
• excellence in education
• Contributing to class discussion
• Making class presentations
• Participating in community-based projects
• Working harder than they thought they could
• Critical thinking skills (Kuh, 2002)

5
How Do We Study the Feeling of Community?

• A search of the literature uncovered social
  presence theory, from the field of communications
  education

6
Purpose of the Study

• The purpose of the study is to understand social
  presence in an online course. The research
  objectives are
• To examine students perceptions of social
  presence in both online and face-to-face sections
  of a senior seminar
• To understand which elements of an online course
  are most effective for facilitating social
  presence
• To examine social presence as expressed through a
  discussion forum in the online section

7
Theoretical Background

• Teacher Immediacy Behavior
• From the field of communication education comes
  the concept of teacher immediacy behavior, based
  on Mehrabian and Wieners early work in
  psychology (1968).
• Immediacy can be defined as the amount of
  perceived physical and/or psychological
  closeness between people (Christophel, 1990, p.
  325). Smiling, having a relaxed body posture and
  position, speaking to the students rather than to
  the chalkboard, using humor, and modulating the
  voice are examples of teacher immediacy behaviors.

8
Social Presence

• Immediacy behaviors gave rise to the concept of
  social presence, from social psychology (Short,
  Williams, and Christie, 1976).
• Social presence is the degree to which a person
  is perceived as a real person in mediated
  communication (Gunawardena, 1995, p.151). The
  more salient the other person in the interaction,
  the higher the degree of social presence.
  Immediacy increases social presence (Gunawardena,
  1995).

9
Social Presence

• Studies of social presence and computer mediated
  communication have shown that despite the low
  social bandwidth of the medium, users of computer
  networks are able to project their identities
  whether real or pseudo, feel the presence of
  others online, and create communities with
  commonly agreed on conventions and norms
  (Gunawardena, 1995,
• p. 151).
• Her own study found that students in computer
  mediated conferences were able to create social
  presence by projecting their identities and
  building online communities (Gunawardena, 1995,
  p. 163).

10
Course Development

• Three sections of a senior seminar offered
• One face-to-face at IUPUI
• One online at IUB with students the instructor
  had taught in four previous classes
• One online at IUPUI with students the instructor
  had never taught, and never met

11
To Increase Social Presence in Online Classes

• Mandatory participation in discussion forum
• Weekly papers synthesizing readings, with prompt
  and detailed feedback from the instructor
• Group PowerPoint presentations
• Prompt email responses from instructor to
  student, providing supportive responses to
  student difficulties
• Use of conversational style in communications
  from instructor to students use of names,
  discussions of personal context, use of emoticons

12
Structure of Online Course

• On Mondays, log on to check assignments and read
  lectures.
• By Wednesdays at 5 pm your response to the
  discussion forum question is due.
• WarmUps are due at 9 am Monday morning on the day
  they are listed on the syllabus, unless otherwise
  noted. For example, the first WarmUp is listed
  on the syllabus for 1-19-04, so it is due by 9 am
  on 1-19-04.
• Check the course announcements for possible
  changes in assignments or schedules as we adjust
  to our learning needs and changing context.

13
Assignments and Weights

• Partic. in Discussion Forum 10 pts.
• WarmUps 33 pts.
• Annotated Bibliography 7 pts.
• Group Presentation 20 pts.
• Final Paper 30 pts.

14
Discussion Forums

• Unit One   Discussion topic due 1-21 midnight   
• Unit Two  Discussion topic due 1-28 midnight  
• Unit Three Discussion Topic due 2-4 midnight  
• Unit Four Discussion topic due 2-11 midnight

15
Discussion Questions

• If you had to pick ONE important value in child
  welfare, what would it be?  Explain the value and
  your feelings about why it is important.
• From your reading of Chapter 6, which do you
  think is more likely to provide more justice
  the family court or the juvenile court, and why?

16
Data Collection

• Questionnaires on perception of social presence,
  with close-ended and open-ended questions
  (Richardson, 2003)
• Content analysis of online discussions (Rourke,
  et al., 1999)
• Interviews with student volunteers (Richardson,
  2003)
• N 42 online, 11 F2F, total 53 (85)
• Hispanic or African Am. students 19

17
Results from Surveys

• Sample questions
• I felt comfortable interacting with other
  participants mean 5.32 online, 5.82 face-to-face
• I felt that my point of view was acknowledged by
  other participants
• mean 5.12 online, 5.64 face-to-face
• The instructor created a feeling of community
• mean 5.16 online, 5.91 face-to-face
• 1 Strongly disagree, 2 Disagree, 3 Somewhat
  disagree, 4 Somewhat agree, 5 Agree, 6 Str
  agree
• Grand means online 5.06, F2F 5.62

18
Results from Surveys

• Does a feeling of community matter to the online
  students?
• Its very important to me to have a feeling of
  community in a class mean 4.8
• Having a feeling of community is important in my
  social work classes but not in my nonmajor
  classes
• 43 agreed
• 48 disagreed I feel it is important to have a
  feeling of community in every class I take
• One person disagreed I feel it is not important
  to have a feeling of community in any class I
  take
• Three people felt it was important but not
  essential

19
Results from Surveys

• What is their perception of their learning?
• Overall this course met my learning expectations
  
• mean 4.96 online, 5.91 face-to-face
  (significant)
• Overall the instructor for this course met my
  expectations
• mean 5.37 online, 6.00 face-to-face
  (significant)
• Which aspects of the class were most effective
  for facilitating social presence?
• students expressed high degrees of comfort and
  sense of community in discussion forum and
  PowerPoint presentations, and overall agreed that
  the quality of learning for these activities was
  excellent

20
Results from Content Analyses

• Rourkes design
• Affective
• 1. Expressions of emotions
• 2. Use of humor
• 3. Self-disclosure

21
Results from Content Analyses

• Interactive
• Quoting from others messages
• Referring explicitly to others messages
• Asking questions
• Complimenting, expressing appreciation
• Expressing agreement

22
Results from Content Analyses

• Cohesives
• Vocatives
• Addresses or refers to the group using inclusive
  pronouns
• Phatics, salutations
• -- Rourke, L, Anderson, T., Garrison, D.R.,
  Archer, W. (1999).

23
Results from Content Analyses

• Overall results
• -- an average of 92 of IUB students had evidence
  of social presence in their discussion comments
• -- an average of 90 of IUPUI students had
  evidence of social presence in their discussion
  comments

24
Results from Interviews and Survey Comments

• How much did you feel like you could share your
  feelings in this course (for example, a little, a
  moderate amount, a lot)? Please explain.
• -- A lot, I felt better sharing them online
  than I do in class because in class I can see
  peoples expression to what Im saying so I might
  not voice my opinions more when I can see them
  react.

25
Results from Interviews and Survey Comments

• How much did you feel like you could share your
  feelings in this course?
• -- Only a moderate amount. I like face to face
  interaction.
• -- A moderate amount, sometimes I was careful
  what to say because I didnt know how others may
  feel on the topic.

26
Results from Interviews and Survey Comments

• If you felt like you could share your feelings in
  this course, what contributed to that feeling?
  Or, if you did not feel like you could share your
  feelings in this course, what contributed to that
  feeling?
• -- Having it on the computer, it took the
  personal aspect out of sharing some anonymity
  because its your name, but its not you having
  to share it. And since it was one of the last
  courses as seniors, people have final things they
  want to say.

27
Results from Interviews and Survey Comments

• If you felt like you could share your feelings in
  this course, what contributed to that feeling?
• -- Because I could feel like people were judging
  me by what I said, not by how I looked. Believe
  it or not, people dont think Im smart from
  looking at me. (Has a 3.75 overall GPA.)

28
Results from Interviews and Survey Comments

• If you felt like you could share your feelings in
  this course, what contributed to that feeling?
  Or, if you did not feel like you could share your
  feelings in this course, what contributed to that
  feeling?
• -- I think that I would not say a lot because I
  generally do not share my feelings more than a
  moderate amount in any class.
• -- I felt I could share my feelings a moderate
  amount. Being online makes it easier to share
  feelings, however, sometimes the context of how
  something is said is lost online.

29
Results from Interviews and Survey Comments

• How much did you feel like you were a part of a
  community in this course (for example, a little,
  a moderate amount, a lot)? Please explain.
• -- A lot. When you do the online course, you
  can see peoples pictures but you look more into
  the words theyre saying, more than what they
  look like. Im not the best looking person,
  sometime I feel intimidated by the more beautiful
  people in class, and sometimes they arent the
  nicest, so you get to know the real people behind
  the face.

30
Results from Interviews and Survey Comments

• How much did you feel like you were a part of a
  community in this course?
• -- I think a sense of community is most apparent
  in the discussion forums. I did notice that I
  was sometimes surprised at the postings of some
  of the people who tend to be quiet in our other
  classes. I think many people felt like they were
  able to disclose more personal information over
  Oncourse, since it seems more anonymous and you
  dont have to face others reactions. In that
  sense it was a nice community people disclosed
  personal information at times and everyone
  spoke up.

31
Results from Interviews and Survey Comments

• How much did you feel like you were a part of a
  community in this course ?
• -- I really felt like I was a part of a
  community, mostly because of the discussion
  forum. We all participated, interacted and
  responded to each other.

32
Results from Interviews and Survey Comments

• How much did you feel like you were a part of a
  community in this course?
• -- Id probably say more of a moderate amount
  because I wasnt seeing the people face to face
  to interact, so it was different but not bad.
• -- I truly did not feel a sense of community
  with this course but I feel it would be difficult
  to establish that connection with any on-line
  course.

33
Should the School of Social Work offer online
courses?

• -- Yes, because I feel that I have learned
  just as much if not more online, and it is just
  more convenient for students who are managing
  multiple things at once.
• -- DEFINITELY. I have taken three online
  courses now they have all been a great
  experience. For students who are committed to
  doing the work and are self-starters these
  classes offer them more flexibility and less time
  on campus. Most of us are very motivated and
  responsible

34
Should the School of Social Work offer online
courses?

• Yes, but not this one. Like the policy courses,
  or community organization would be ok. Because
  in those classes, we just read the book and dont
  discuss in class. In this one, we needed to be
  in class. I wanted to see peoples faces, I would
  love to have seen the presentations in class.
  Its different from clicking on a computer there
  would be more interaction in person.

No, I think its a waste of everyones time.
35
Limitations and Conclusions

• Exploratory study with small sample
• Students may be different from other students
  since they have had many classes together
• Social work majors, however, provide valuable
  insights for an exploratory study
• trained to be reflective and self aware
• have experience in engaging, active classrooms
• have had two research courses
• provide some ethnic diversity (17)
• Facilitating engaging communities of learners is
  a worthwhile goal for educators

36
Assessing Social Presence in an Online Course

• Carol Hostetter and Monique Busch
• chostett_at_indiana.edu
• Indiana University
• Funded in part by the Scholarship of Teaching and
  Learning