Thoughts on Creating a Sense of Online Presence

 

 

 

As technology continues to evolve, we are no longer limited to physical interactions. We can connect with others worldwide as the boundaries between the real and the virtual worlds dissolve. Information and knowledge are now in the palm of our hands, and we can access them through the tips of our fingers. But - having and accessing information in a casual way does not necessarily mean that we are learning. Learning, as the process of making sense of information and constructing and applying knowledge in formal online settings, requires a different way of thinking, feeling, and behaving that gives the illusion of being together with the instructor and with others. It requires creating a sense of presence. 

 

Reference

Lehman, R. M., & Conceição, S. C. (2010). Creating a Sense of Presence in Online Teaching: How to “Be There” for Distance Learners. Jossey-Bass. 

Creating Presence Activities at the End of the Course

 

During the last three weeks of the online course, as learners become more independent, confident, and focused on what they need to complete the course, instructor presence will most likely lessen. To maintain the flow of the course and help learners complete their final tasks, special attention should be given to communication between the instructor and learners. Create an environment for rich feedback in group or teamwork, in assignment performance, and design an activity that will bring closure to the course.

 

Reference

 

Lehman, R. M., & Conceição, S. C. (2010). Creating a Sense of Presence in Online Teaching: How to “Be There” for Distance Learners. Jossey-Bass. 

Creating Presence Activities During the Online Course

 

The same approach used for designing experiences that create presence before the online course begins should also be used for the creation of activities during the course. During the course you will want to intentionally involve learners in interactive activities (you with your learners, learners and learners with you, and learners with learners in a group or team.) 

Our book provides many activity examples of both educational and logistical activities. If the format of the learning experience is self-paced, the interactive activities should focus on one-on-one with your learner. If the format is team or group-based the focus should be on cooperative or collaborative activities. Logistical activities, which are non-content based, are also very important during the course. 

Reference

Lehman, R. M., & Conceição, S. C. (2010). Creating a Sense of Presence in Online Teaching: How to “Be There” for Distance Learners. Jossey-Bass. 

Creating Presence Activities Before the Course Begins

 

Use the Determinants of Presence in our Framework to create presence activities before and throughout the course. Let's begin with before the course begins: how about mailing or emailing a Welcome Letter and sharing biographies/pictures on the learning management system (LMS)? Another idea is to create ice breakers for individuals and for upcoming group and teamwork. You can also create a Scavenger Hunt to help learners with course orientation and guide them through the navigation and organization of the course. Your role, before the course begins, the technologies you select, and the support you provide will also determine "presence success." 

Framework for Designing Online Courses with a Sense of Presence

 

In our book, we propose an instructional design framework that uses the “Being There for the Online Learner” model as a foundation for understanding presence and the determinants of presence as the design components for creating a sense of presence in the online environment. The sense of presence should be intentionally incorporated into the design of the course during the preplanning phase using the determinants of presence. 

Reference

Lehman, R. M., & Conceição, S. C. (2010). Creating a Sense of Presence in Online Teaching: How to “Be There” for Distance Learners. Jossey-Bass. 

The "Being There for the Online Learner" Model

To understand how online learners experience presence and better design for those experiences, we have developed a "Being There for the Online Learner" model. This model illustrates learners' three-phase perceptual process (the inner world, the interface with the outer world, and the outer world), through which they experience presence. The model also incorporates the types of experience, the modes of presence, and how these elements interplay. 

Reference

Lehman, R. M., & Conceição, S. C. (2010). Creating a Sense of Presence in Online Teaching: How to “Be There” for Distance Learners. Jossey-Bass. 

 

Four Types of Experience to Create a Sense of Presence

What types of experience can you use for learners to help create a sense of presence? We’ve identified four types: subjective, objective, social, and environmental experiences. These types of experiences are based on concepts addressed by Ijsselsteijn et al. (2000).

Subjective experience is personal and psychological presence and takes place within our mind. It is the illusion of being in another location. For example, when our learners are experiencing online learning, they may have the illusion of being in another location as their mind is interacting with the content, you (the instructor), and other learners. 

Objective experience gives you and your learners a sense that you are both psychologically and physically in another location (Ijsselsteijnet al., 2000). It’s like feeling that you are "actually" located in the technology-mediated space. Objective experience has occurred in our teaching. Our learners have said that they experienced a feeling of psychologically and physically being in the same space with others during an online class - that they felt like they were in the same room and that the technology had disappeared. In reality, they were separated by thousands of miles. 

Social experience is when you have a sense of being with others who exist in the online environment and respond to each other. It is the social presence derived from communicating and interacting with others or with animated characters; for example, interacting with avatars in Second Life®. When others recognize and respond, it validates both the individual and group existence. The importance of ongoing interactions is significant and allows and facilitates feelings of understanding (Hargreaves, 2004). 

Environmental experience views the learner as a partner and central to the design process. It provides the ability to easily access and modify the environment (Sheridan, 1992), provide input about the environment, and interact with that environment. A description of the environmental experience incorporates both the physical and the educational aspects of the learning experience. The physical aspect involves the capability for the learners to have technical access and support for the technology and tools they are using. The educational aspect is the instructor’s openness and the design of the course structure that allows learners to feel that they are an integral part of the environment and can react to it. 

References

Hargreaves, A. (2004). Emotional geographies of teaching. Teachers College Record,103(6), 1056–1083.

Ijsselsteijn, W. A., de Ridder, H., Freeman, J., & Avons, S. E. (2000). Presence: Concept, determinants, and measurement. In Human Vision and Electronic Imaging Conference, proceedings of the International Society for Optical Engineering, 3959, 520–529.

Sheridan, T. (1992). Musings on telepresence and virtual presence. Telepresence. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, 1(1), 120–126.

Modes for Experiencing Presence

 

What modes of experience can you use for learners to help create a sense of presence? Ijsselsteijn et al. (2000) have identified four modes. These modes of presence are realism, immersion, involvement, and suspension of disbelief. We create the "illusion of nonmediation" in each mode, so that we no longer perceive the existence of the medium in our communication environment and respond as though the medium were transparent. 

In realism, there is a close match between the real and the virtual world. In this case, we try to match as closely as possible the elements of the human senses (i.e., vision, hearing, and touch) to those that are used in the online experience to replicate the reality (Argyle & Dean, 1965). Nursing simulators are a good example of creating a realistic experience that closely resembles the actual one. 

In the immersion mode, illusion occurs through virtual reality. The Second Life® 3-D virtual environment is a good example of this mode. Participants experience presence in this virtual world through the creation of avatars. These avatars become their identity and exist in a pre-designed environment, immersing themselves in this virtual world. An illusion is created by the detailed mapping to physical reality and by vicariously moving around in the virtual environment, interacting with others. 

Involvement creates personal, interactive engagement with the learner and others. Through the design of interactive activities, the line between the real and the virtual world is blurred. Think of a student actively in an online team project. She engages in dynamic conversations with classmates through synchronous and asynchronous technologies and senses that she is in the same room with others. 

Suspension of disbelief is a psychological “letting go" of reality. In this mode, the participants are creating the reality in their own minds. They intentionally allow themselves to suspend their analytical faculties. They recognize what is happening but give up what they believe to be true. This mode of presence is experienced whenever we watch a movie, view a video, attend a drama, or read a book.

References

Argyle, M., & Dean, J. (1965). Eye-contact, distance and affiliation. Sociometry, 28, 289–304.

Ijsselsteijn, W. A., de Ridder, H., Freeman, J., & Avons, S. E. (2000). Presence: Concept, determinants, and measurement. In Human Vision and Electronic Imaging Conference, proceedings of the International Society for Optical Engineering, 3959, 520–529.

Dimensions of the Learner and the Role of Emotion

What are the learner dimensions you need to be aware of to create a sense of presence and what role does emotion play? According to Garrison et al. (2001), there are three learner dimensions: the interior world, the interface with the real world (perception/conception process), and the concrete world shared with others. 

Our interior world is the inner space in which we reflect on, consider, analyze, and synthesize information. We then make a transition through the perceptual/conceptual process (interface) with the outer world in which we relate to other people and share our inner feelings and thoughts. Noe (2005) calls this the enactive perceptual process. Throughout the process of using these three dimensions (interior world, the interface with the real world, and the concrete world), emotions affect thought and then behavior, impacting learners’ experience of presence. 

Though neglected in the past, the importance of emotion in learning is gaining significance. Emotions are key to the process because they help learners focus their perceptions on particular aspects of a thought and enable them to concentrate on specific situations, connect the affective to the cognitive, and arrive at thoughtful and appropriate decisions (Alcañiz et al., 2004). Emotions act as a kind of gatekeeper, both with and without the intervention of thought. Emotional intelligence involves, the ability to perceive accurately, appraise, and express emotion; the ability to access and/or generate feelings when they facilitate thought; the ability to understand emotion and emotional knowledge; and the ability to regulate emotions to promote emotional and intellectual growth (Salovey & Sluyter, 1997. It is important to note that there are two sides to the coin of emotion. One example would be a learner who overwhelmingly shares messages that provoke emotions in other people and leads the discussion in a negative direction. Conversely, a learner who shares ideas related to content concepts and thoughtfully incorporates personal feelings, encourages others to participate in the discourse in a positive manner. This reflects the new area of research on emotional intelligence (Goleman, 1995). This relatively new area of research tells us that the more we are able to use our emotions in connection with our thought process, the better able we are to clarify our perceptions, and make decisions most appropriate to a given situation.

In this research, increased connectivity between thought and emotion is the key to their working together rather than separately (LeDoux, 1996). The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is basing its Learning Companion project on the interplay of emotion, thought, and learning. This project is developing an affective companion prototype that will provide emotional support to participants in the learning process, assisting them by helping to alleviate frustration and self-doubt (Picard et al., 2004). 

References

Alcañiz, M., Bañoa, R., Botella, C., & Rey, B. (2003). The EMMA project: Emotions as a determinant of presence. Psychology Journal, 1(2), 141–150.

Garrison, D., Anderson, W., & Archer, W. (2001). Critical thinking, cognitive presence, and computer conferencing in distance education. American Journal of Distance Education, 5(1): 7–23.

Goleman, D. (1995). Emotional intelligence: Why it can matter more than IQ. Bantam Dell.

LeDoux, J. (1996). The emotional brain. Simon and Schuster.

Noe, A. (2005). Action in perception. Cambridge. MIT Press.

Picard, R., Kort, B., & Reilly, T. (2004). Affective learning companion: Exploring the role of emotion in propelling the SMET learning process. Retrieved March 29, 2004, from http://affect.media.mit.edu/AC_research/lc/nsf1.html

Salovey, P., & Mayer, J. D. (1990). Emotional intelligence. Imagination, Cognition, and Personality, 9(3), 185–211.

Presence is Rooted in the Interactive Perceptual Process

Presence is rooted in the interactive (i.e., enactive) perceptual process (Noe, 2005) and should be viewed from different perspectives: social, psychological, and emotional.

Social presence surfaced in the 1970s when Short et al. (1976) wrote about individuals being seen as “real” when communicating using media. In this case, the amount of presence was based on the type of media used. Today, it is believed that the type of media used has little influence on social presence in online environments. Rather, social presence has more to do with how well individuals participating in online learning are successful in acknowledging or disregarding the presence of the medium (Lombard & Ditton, 1997) and feel a sense of “being together” with others (Biocca et al., 2001) as previously mentioned. 

In the second perspective, according to Lombard and Ditton (1997), presence is a psychological state in which the technology becomes transparent to the user who no longer recognizes it in the learning experience, an illusion in which the technology seems to disappear and people and locations that are in reality separated, perceive and feel that they are present together in the same room.  

The third perspective, emotional presence, is the ability to genuinely show feelings through words, symbols, and interactions with others in the online environment. In this process, learners and instructors are emotionally present when they connect with others in an authentic way during the online learning experience. Throughout the perceptual process, emotions affect our behavior and thought and impact our experiences of presence. Emotions are key to perception; they guide us to focus on particular aspects of a situation, enable us to concentrate on that situation, connect the affective to the cognitive, and allow us to arrive at thoughtful and appropriate decisions for our actions (Alcañiz et al., 2004).

References

Alcañiz, M., Bañoa, R., Botella, C., & Rey, B. (2003). The EMMA project: Emotions as a determinant of presence. Psychology Journal, 1(2), 141–150.

Biocca, F., Burgoon, J., Harms, C., & Stoner, M. (2001). Criteria and scope conditions for a theory and measure of social presence. Paper presented at the Presence 2001: Fourth International Workshop.

Lombard, M., & Ditton, T. (1997). At the heart of it all: The concept of presence. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 3(2). 

Noe, A. (2005). Action in perception. Cambridge. MIT Press.

Short, J., Williams, E., & Christie, B. (1976). The social psychology of telecommunications. London: Wiley Press.