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 * Social presence as a factor in online and distance education and the challenges educators face in online education. **


 * Abstract **

Evolution of technology in education has naturally created new opportunities and challenges for educators as well as students. Online learning has taken precedence over traditional way of teaching because of its convenience, access and flexibility. Traditionally courses were designed where teacher and student are meant to be at one place in one geographic location and time. The concept has altogether changed and is also a dominating trend in the business sector as well. Now students could learn from anywhere in the world, so do educators could teach from anywhere. Proponents of e-learning suggest that e-learning matches or in some cases exceeds the formal learning process by enhancing group learning, through asynchronous learning forums, bulletin boards, peer collaboration. The purpose of this study is to indentify social presence as Global a factor promoting instructional effectiveness and the challenges educator’s face in distance and online education.

Introduction

Learning is an individual as well as social process. (Bibeau, 2001 __cited in Aragon 2003__). It is essential for course designers, educators and participants to know how to create social presence in distance and online education learning and to sustain it. The social presence is a vital element in virtual learning environment. It is very important for us to understand how students and educators interact in a computer mediated environment, where asynchronous communication takes precedence over synchronous communication and the role of social presence in this Computer mediated communication.

**What is social presence?** The premise of presence is that you exist in the world with others in a virtual world of online learning environment. Social presence is perceived as existence of real person in a virtual environment or virtual learning environment. Social presence is the degree to which a person is perceived as a ‘real person’ in mediated communication (Gunawardena,1995 __cited in Hostettern & Busch, 2006__). Short, Williams & Christie (1976), are credited with the theoretical frame work of Social Presence theory. Although, this theory was written before the evolution of internet and web 2.0 technologies, yet it has gained more importance in computer mediated communication and virtual learning environment. Social presence as a framework was further developed by Garrison, Anderson, & Archer (2000), The Community of Inquiry model presents a collaborative-constructivist learning experience through the development of three interdependent elements - social, cognitive and teaching presence. Social presence has received the most attention of Community of inquiry model especially in the computer mediated communication.(Bartruff & Headley, 2009 __cited in Lowenthal & Dunlap 2009__). social presence is a function of the cognitive representation of the group by group members and not the interpersonal bonds between the group members. Rogers & Lea (2005).

Asynchronous communication is a major form of interaction between the teachers and students and between the students in online education. According to Kehrwald (2008),online learning environments were identified as fertile ground for teaching and learning to thrive, derived from a social constructivist philosophy and those which emphasize social aspects of learning Social presence is a critical element of computer-mediated interaction. Kehrwald (2008 p 89-106). Without the potential of social presence, online environments exist as a unloading ground for materials and resources expected to flourish but not to the desired level. However distance on line education succeeded before the advent of internet and web technologies but not at the same rate as present day mass production of courses and mass enrollment. Educators are faced with the problem of how best to replicate or emulate social presence in online learning and teaching environment,

According to Rogers & Lea (2005), It is not necessary to emulate face-to-face to promote social presence but belongingness to the group and being immersed in the group activities are the necessities that continue to enhance social presence in online education. Social presence is a significant factor for successful teaching, Hsiung (2002), and learning environment.

Most of the traditional approaches were didactic or teacher driven, teacher is seen as the fountain of knowledge, since constructivism came into effect, learning is seen Kehrwald (2008), where students can build their own knowledge with the help of the teacher, their peers in a group setting and interacting with the content. If traditional approaches like transmission approach is used in online learning students they are likely perform not as well as in constructive model of learning, because teacher takes the dominant role giving lectures and students mostly remain as passive consumers. Constructivism model of learning proposes that students could build their own knowledge with the peers interacting with the content and with the teacher to succeed and to maximize their learning. Social Presence enhances group dynamics where students interact with each other in group activities. Students are empowered and supported by each other’s ability to learn collectively and engage in a critical dialogue. Teacher could create a sense of community by engaging the students with the content and with the group, where individual participation as well as collective participation is regarded and rewarded. Social presence is one of the most significant factors in improving instructional effectiveness and belongingness to the group, building a sense of community Aragon (2003). In my opinion, Web-based instruction may be as effective as face-to-face instruction as long as there is effective social presence in on line learning environment.


 * Creating Social Presence and Maintaining Social Presence in Online Environments **

Let us think about a scenario where we all have experienced. Imagine you were transferred to another town completely new to you for work. You went to work one day. Think about the new faces you are surrounded by, you remain in a situation where, you are not greeted, not given a welcome. If you asked an employee for something, he responded by saying you have to find it yourself! although, you are excited but you are also anxious and uneasy. You may come across feeling of loneliness and despair.

Now let us think about another scenario where you went to another country on job transfer, where the Manager is friendly and the staff too. They gave you induction, they even made you coffee and even told you not to do any work except to get familiar with the new office on the first day. How would you feel? When you compare social presence in the second instance to the first one? Are they are not contrasting? You feel unwelcomed and unapproachable and somewhat depressed in the first instance. In the second instance, it is natural you feel warm, welcomed and approachable. This is exactly what happens to each student when they first enroll in an online course. Greater social presence can create greater bond towards the other students and with the teacher. Social presence is not spontaneous, it has to be created consciously and deliberately. Although instructional designers, plan social presence to be ideal in their design in a theoretical sense, yet practical steps had to be taken consciously to improve social presence by the educators as well as students.

(Garrison, and Archer 1999 __cited in Aragon 2003__), place more emphasis on the students who can support and project social presence in a community of inquiry model. Every member of an online learning community is responsible for establishing and maintaining social presence. However, an online instructor has some additional responsibility to help establish and maintain social presence in a course .Students who perceived being involved in greater collaborative learning activities tended to be more satisfied with their online course in a virtual learning environments than those who perceived who worked with learning activities lesser in collaborative nature Soa. & Brush. (2000).

Elevated levels of social presence in an online learning environment create a supportive cognitive learning atmosphere which can maintain and sustain critical thinking critical dialogue and reflection, significant level of social presence could keep the students being engaged in the learning activities and could intrinsically reward the participants (Garrison & Archer2001 __cited in Aragon 2003__). When an online environment is deficient of social presence the connectedness diminishes possibly effecting the motivation to study, students may also feel like they are alone in the classroom. When the environment is lacking social presence, the participants see it as impersonal and, in turn, the amount of information shared with others decreases reflecting the poor quality of dialogue (Leh, 2001 __cited in Aragon 2003__). This may lead to the students withdrawing from the course.

If students feel that they encouraged by peers in group activities and by the teacher, students feel more binding towards each other, and are to likely to get motivated to perform well. Successful completion of the course could increase student’s cognitive and affective learning thereby decreasing attrition rate. (Swan, 2002 __cited in Hostettern & Busch, 2006__), reports that students perceived online discussions as more fair and more democratic than traditional classroom discussions, and that there was a positive relationship between intensity of interaction among students and student satisfaction in an online course. This environment gives opportunity for every student to raise their voice in asynchronous discussion forums, thereby promoting equitable social presence. Students comfortable in online learning could enhance social presence by having positive effects in learning, yet according to Hostettern & Busch (2006), enhancing students’ social presence may not have a significant effect on students learning outcomes.

(Rourke __cited in Hostettern & Busch 2006__), suggests social presence supports collective cognitive objectives through its ability to instigate, sustain, and support critical thinking in a in a small group learning environment. Understanding the social presence aspect of an online class may help educators better understand how to construct an excellent, engaging online teaching/learning environment. (__Rourke et al cited in Hostettern & Busch 2006__). According to (Schutte, 1997 __cited in Hostettern & Busch 2006__), students in the online course perceive a higher level of peer contact than the traditional classroom-based students this could motivate each other to complete their assignments and necessary requirements of the course work in time.

**Challenges**

Educators who are faced with online teaching class without adequate training could also find it daunting as students. Traditional teaching is different to online teaching. Online teaching and learning puts considerable amount of burden on student shoulders as they have to bear it and be self motivated. In a traditional classroom where students and teachers meet frequently, teachers could guide the students verbally in classroom by face to face discussion, whereas in an online classroom this has to be in the form of either email, audio or video. It depends on students how they respond to each interaction environment face to face or online model of learning. Some students may find online form of interaction different to face to face discussion especially to the new students.Some educators are hesitant to take up new challenges and embrace technology either due to lack of training or negative attitude towards technology. Some educators may even question the pedagogy of online learning. These educators should be trained well before taking them to the online classroom. The best way to learn is to be a student of online course and observe its strengths and weakness.

According Moore (1989), Lower the social presence greater the transactional distance. How to bridge the distance between the educator and the student is more important in decreasing the transactional distance, Although students are geographically distant, The gap could be bridged by increasing dialogue and discourse and decreasing the structure. Students come with various needs and expectations. Completing high school in face to face traditional learning environment and hoping to complete BSC online would find online learning daunting. Students need to learn how to discipline themselves, be self motivated as online learning is more student centered although guidance is available from the teacher.

Guawardena (2000). Some courses seem to transmit information to the learner rather than foster teaching and learning in a dialogic manner, as there will be naturally less opportunities of interaction, therefore lack of social presence is evident in these sort of learning environments.


 * Suggestions to promote social presence **

The technology that exists today allows a close replication of a face-to-face environment at a reasonable cost to both the organization and the participants. Therefore, it is recommended that the online environment incorporate some form of audio into the design. Instructors play a significant role in establishing social presence for online environments. Aragon (2003).

Unless educators understand the importance of social presence they could not effectively promote social presence. Unfamiliarity automatically puts the students as well as educators at a distance more psychologically. The educators need to promote and maintain least transactional distance. where there is more discourse and dialogue and less structure there would be less transactional distance. Although it is difficult to maintain social presence, in an online learning environment, yet it is possible to achieve considerable level of social presence which creates ideal learning environment Aragon (2003).

The technological tools available today like audio, video chat function through yahoo, MSN Messenger, Skype or even the inbuilt functions of many courses give us great oppornuties for asynchronous as well as synchronous communication opportunities. Creating a safe environment for the learners by the educator allows students to take risks and collaborate in an authentic manner (Bonk and Cunningham, 1998 __cited in Hostettern& Busch 2006__).

To maintain a manageable class and promote ideal social presence (Rovai, __cited in Aragon (2003),__ suggests a student-instructor ratio of no higher than 30:1. Beyond this, the amount of social presence that can be established between students and the instructor diminishes and transactional distance Moore (1991), increases. lesser the social presence, lesser could be the motivation to continue to do the course there is a possibility students pulling out of the course.

Students and teachers whose expectation of online courses, is similar to face to face teaching and learning would find it daunting moreover they would find out the complexities of online learning. While the technology on its own cannot promote or produce social presence, it is the educator and the students that can promote, maintain and sustain social presence, by interacting with the other learners and the educator and with the content. Educators should design learning activities that are interactive in learning and collaborative nature, to promote greater social presence. Educators should give more opportunities collaborative in nature. Learners interacting with the content and with the peers in group activities and with the teacher could promote desired level of social presence in an online learning environment.
 * Conclusion **



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