{"id":4232,"date":"2022-09-19T07:46:22","date_gmt":"2022-09-19T14:46:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspire\/?p=4232"},"modified":"2022-09-19T11:00:18","modified_gmt":"2022-09-19T18:00:18","slug":"beginning-to-define-presence-in-online-courses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspire\/2022\/09\/19\/beginning-to-define-presence-in-online-courses\/","title":{"rendered":"Beginning to Define Presence in Online Courses"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Introduction<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I hear the word presence<\/em>, I\u2019m reminded of a teacher taking attendance at the beginning of class. I picture the teacher calling out each student\u2019s name, the students responding either \u201chere!\u201d or \u201cpresent!\u201d in turn. In this scenario, though, while the students each affirm their presence, the teacher\u2019s presence is a given. The teacher doesn\u2019t mark herself present in the attendance record. The teacher doesn\u2019t need to prove they taught class or prove they exist to students. As one might suspect, this is an area where online asynchronous courses differ from traditional classrooms: one\u2019s presence is not a given. Presence becomes even more important in online settings. Perhaps that\u2019s why we hear so much about it. Online presence. Social presence. Instructor presence. But, what do these words really mean in virtual classrooms?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are many ways to define presence. The first entry in Merriam Webster\u2019s online dictionary defines presence<\/em> as \u201cthe fact or condition of being present.\u201d This entry directs readers to present (adjective, entry 3 of 4)<\/em>, which defines present<\/em> as \u201cnow existing or in progress.\u201d There is an immediacy to these words, a temporal aspect, and a physicality: Presence. How do we reconcile the temporal and physical connotations of this term with online, asynchronous interactions?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this digital age, I think most folks would agree that it\u2019s possible to experience presence online, to feel that someone is real, even if they\u2019re not standing in front of you. But, how do we define it within this context? How do we describe presence to someone who\u2019s attempting to achieve it virtually? For myself and other instructional designers tasked with guiding faculty to design and prepare to facilitate an online course, where they\u2019re told their ability to establish presence will directly impact student success, what advice do we offer? Simply put, how is presence communicated in an online, asynchronous course?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To begin answering these questions, I\u2019ll provide an overview of Garrison et al.\u2019s (2000) Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework, which defines three presences for computer-mediated communication (i.e., the communication that occurs in online courses and other digital environments). Then, we\u2019ll briefly consider how you <\/em>might think about presence in your own online courses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overview of Community of Inquiry (COI)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ll start with a brief overview of Garrison et al.\u2019s (2000) model of Community of Inquiry (CoI). CoI is a conceptual model that identifies three presences that are essential for online classrooms. It\u2019s worth noting, too, that this model was created to provide a framework for presence mediated through the use of digital technologies. The three presences are 1) cognitive presence, 2) social presence, and 3) teaching presence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cognitive presence refers to the opportunities learners have \u201cto construct meaning through sustained communication\u201d (Garrison et al., 2000, p. 89). This is considered a foundational element of the model and might include, for example, an instructor providing feedback to students or students engaging in peer review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Social presence includes opportunities the instructor and students have to share personal details within the classroom environment. Social presence supports cognitive presence and plays an important role in meeting course goals that are explicitly affective (Garrison et al., 2000).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teaching presence is divided into two functions: structure and process. The structure can be thought of as the design of the educational environment and the process is often thought of as the facilitation of the environment (Garrison et al., 2000). Although different people may be involved in each function (e.g., an instructional designer and teacher might design a course, but a different instructor and a TA might be responsible for facilitating the course), both functions play a role in teaching presence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While we don\u2019t have enough space here to dig into each of these presences, I highly recommend checking out the article, \u201cDesigning a community of inquiry in online courses\u201d (Fiock, 2020)<\/a>, which lists many instructional activities that can be implemented to support each type of presence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suggestions for Moving Forward<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, you might find it hard to keep these presences straight, and that\u2019s okay! Richardson and Lowenthal (2017) point out that academic publications don\u2019t even use the same terms to describe various online presences. Acknowledging that there are different interpretations of presence in online contexts and different approaches for achieving presence online is the point of this post. In the future, you can always refer back here or save the resources listed below for reference later. In Ecampus, we try to emphasize instructor-student, student-student, and student-content interaction, an approach you might find easier to remember.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I hope you take away from this post is that it’s not as important to remember the differences between each of these presences as much as it is important to include a variety of strategies in your course to communicate and establish presence. I\u2019d also encourage you to occasionally try new approaches and to strive to communicate presence in multiple ways, without getting locked into a narrow view of presence and what it means in online classrooms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

References & Resources<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fiock, H. (2020). Designing a Community of Inquiry in online courses. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 21(1), 135-153. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.19173\/irrodl.v20i5.3985<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Garrison, Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (1999). Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education. The Internet and Higher Education, 2<\/em>(2), 87\u2013105. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/S1096-7516(00)00016-6<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Presence. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved July 29, 2022, from https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/presence<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Present. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved July 29, 2022, from https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/present<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Richardson, J. C., & Lowenthal, P. (2017). Instructor social presence: Learners\u2019 needs and a neglected component of the community of inquiry framework.<\/a> In A. Whiteside, A. Garrett Dikkers, & K. Swan, (Eds.), Social presence in online learning: Multiple perspectives on practice and research (pp. 86-98). Stylus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Introduction When I hear the word presence, I\u2019m reminded of a teacher taking attendance at the beginning of class. I picture the teacher calling out each student\u2019s name, the students responding either \u201chere!\u201d or \u201cpresent!\u201d in turn. In this scenario, though, while the students each affirm their presence, the teacher\u2019s presence is a given. The… Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9445,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[103045,1839,123,120,77,88537,155,1393938],"class_list":["post-4232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-course-design","tag-ecampus","tag-engagement","tag-instructional-design","tag-instructor","tag-online-learning","tag-oregon-state-university","tag-presence"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9445"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4232"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4274,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4232\/revisions\/4274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}