7 Steps to Creating Presence in Online Courses - Step 6

 

Online teaching and learning should be an experience where presence is felt by both instructors and learners. How is presence created?

 

The sixth step is to design your course step-by-step for presence and community. For this you'll need a design framework. The Design Framework we created in our presence book (Lehman & Conceição, 2010) includes the Learner-Centered Model discussed in Step 5 and six tools to use – we call the tools the Determinants of Presence: 

 

1.     Content

2.     Format

3.     Instructor Roles

4.     Strategies

5.     Technologies

6.     Support

 

The arrows connecting the model to the instructor and the determinants is the dynamic process you go through to revisit the Model and the Determinants as you develop your 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. 

7 Steps to Creating Presence in Online Courses - Step 5

 

The fifth step is to use a LEARNER-CENTERED MODEL. The learner-centered model we created in our presence book (Lehman & Conceição, 2010) helps instructors better understand the perceptual nature of students and ways in which the educational experience can be designed to create presence.

Learners are at the center of the model, with their thoughts, emotions and behavior. We call this center circle the Who. The next circle is the What, which indicates the interactive experiences that can be created for learners. For example, the instructor can incorporate:

1. objective experiences (Skype or electronic office hours to create a sense of objective presence)

2. subjective experiences (the use of names and learners’ experiences to incorporate the personal)

3. social experiences (interactive activities, group and team work, or discussion)

4. environmental experiences (which allow students to actually change the learning environment through feedback and formative course change)

The circle around the What is the How or Modes of Presence, the ways in which these interactions can be carried out. For example, the instructor can use:

1. realism (a simulation or a real life project)

2. immersion (Second Life or gamification)

3. involvement (debates, the discussion board, group work, or team projects)
   

4. suspension-of-disbelief (the use of videos, reading materials, or audio podcasts)

The outer circle is the Where, the online environment (described in the Differences Chart) that the instructor participates in, partnering with learners.

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. 

7 Steps to Creating Presence in Online Courses -- Step 4

 

Online teaching and learning should be an experience where presence is felt by both instructors and learners. How is presence created?
 

The fourth step is CONSIDER THE PSYCHOLOGICAL AND EMOTIONAL. Designing for online learning has to do with our senses and perceptions (remember the Differences Chart) and this requires that we learn to adjust our senses and perceptions to these new ways of reaching out to our students (after all, perceptions drive our thinking.) Think carefully about this - what we’re doing is appealing to our students psychologically and emotionally, as well as cognitively, and creating an illusion of presence. We’re not “really” present with them (nor they with us) but want to make them think we are - that we’re all together in the same virtual space.

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. 

7 Steps to Creating Presence in Online Courses – Step 3

 

The third step is LOOKING AT ONLINE LEARNING AS A HUMAN EXPERIENCE. Credit Marshall McLuhan with researching and discussing this as early as the 70s - see his Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. Other researchers have built on this idea – John Short and colleagues who developed a concept of presence (in the 70s), Lani Gunawardena whose research emphasized engaging learners (in the 80s and 90s), Palloff and Pratt who more recently researched and wrote on creating community in cyberspace, Caspi and Blau who focused on online learners as partners, and Lehman and Conceição whose book in 2010 Creating a Sense of Presence: How to ‘Be There’ for Distance Learners. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass helps integrate and expand on the research. 

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. 

 

7 Steps to Creating Presence in Online Courses - Step 2

 

Online teaching and learning should be an experience where presence is felt by both instructors and learners. How is presence created?

 

The second step is to UNDERSTAND THE NEW ENVIRONMENT. The chart above can help you understand how the Face-to-Face and the Virtual Online Worlds are different. With this chart you can begin to see how you need to change and adapt your teaching to reach across space in a very human way to your students. Next week - Step 3.

 

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. 

7 Steps to Creating Presence in Online Courses - Step 1

Online teaching and learning should be an experience where presence is felt by both instructors and learners. How is presence created?

1 - The first critical step is to WALK IN YOUR STUDENTS' SHOES - in other words take an online course or two. Unless you’ve been a student in an online course you have no idea what your students will be experiencing. Understanding the experience they will have is critical!!

 

Next week - Step 2.

 

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. 

Making Sense of Presence: Are You Here or There?

 

The basic difference between face-to-face teaching and learning and distance teaching and learning is the separation of the instructor from the learners and the learners from each other. This separation can cause feelings of isolation, frustration, and anxiety. A way to overcome these feelings in the online environment is through an awareness and understanding of a sense of presence that is followed by creating presence and community through course design. Often in our classes our learners have said that they feel as though they are not separated but are in the same room. Are they “here or there”? Often they really aren’t sure and that is amazing!

If you keep in mind that making sense of presence in the online environment is based not on what is actually taking place but rather on the way the course is designed and the way you and your learners think, feel, and behave, you will begin to truly “be there” and “be together” with others.

 

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. 

End of Online Course Activities

 

Instructor presence may lessen during the final two or three weeks of the online course, as learners become more independent, confident, and focused on what is needed to complete the course. During this time, instructors should pay special attention to completing tasks, clarifying issues through announcements, and providing support through individual or group or team meetings. At this point, technology should be totally transparent.

 

End of Course activities may include: 1) end-of-course communication, in the form of announcements (for example, a Welcome to the last Unit Announcement and a Final Course Announcement when everything has been completed); 2) paper critiques in which course participants write a topic synthesis and share it with group members for critique; 3) team project self- and peer feedback for rating individuals in the team and the team itself; 4) whole group discussion that will offer time for reflection and new perspectives; 5) instructor feedback, as a facilitator, supporter, and evaluator; and 6) end-of-course debriefing to help learners decompress and process their online course experience.

 

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. 

Online Activities During Your Course

 

A variety of activities can be incorporated during your course to engage learners: instructor-led activities, logistical (non-content) and instructional (content) activities, and cooperative and collaborative activities. These activities will enhance a sense of presence through emotional, personal, and team/group connection. First, look at your course scope and sequence, then design and integrate activities that will help realize your course objectives/outcomes. These activities might include Twitter announcements, electronic office hours, mini-lectures with feedback opportunities, guest experts with interviews, debates, participant audios and videos (Podcasts, YouTube, etc.), trigger videos (playing a short video sequence that leads to discussion), blogs, case studies, digital storytelling, group discussions, group and team projects, and virtual projects. 

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. 

 

Online Activities Before Your Course Begins

Before your course begins is the perfect time to obtain information about your learners' backgrounds and interests and share information about yourself. Use an Individual Data Sheet or a Biographical Sharing Form. This provides an opportunity for you to connect and start creating a sense of presence with course participants. Another excellent way to orient students before your course begins is to involve them in a Course Scavenger Hunt. This activity can welcome them to the course, help them get to know each other, guide them through the specifics of the course, introduce them to netiquette, help them become familiar with the different locations on the course site, introduce them to team and group work, and begin course readings. Orientation activities not only start before the course begins, but often last through the first week.

 

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.