Abstracts
Abstract
As instructors are forced to move their courses online, they are confronted by a sense of isolation and distance from their learners. Research has shown that feelings of loneliness are mitigated when presence is created in the online environment. An interpretive phenomenological analysis was conducted at a public university in the United States to answer the question: What are the determinants of presence for instructors in online teaching? Twenty-five online instructors from various disciplines, with diverse levels of experience teaching online, were recruited for the study. Interviews, analysis of course syllabi, and observations of course sites revealed five determinants of presence for online instructors: content, format, strategies, technology, and students. The crucial factor in deciding an instructor’s experience of presence was the degree of agency instructors had over these determinants. This paper introduces the Zones of Agency for Online Instructors model and describes how the model can be used to enhance instructors’ experiences of presence.
Keywords:
- presence,
- online education,
- faculty development,
- determinants of presence
Appendices
Bibliography
- Bair, D. E., & Bair, M. A. (2011). Paradoxes of online teaching. International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 5(2), 1-15. https://doi.org/10.20429/ijsotl.2011.050210
- Biglan, A. (1973). Relationships between subject matter characteristics and the structure and output of university departments. Journal of Applied Psychology, 57(3), 204-213. https:/doi.org/10.1037/h0034699
- Childers, J. L., & Berner, R. T. (2000). General education issues, distance education practices: Building community and classroom interaction through the integration of curriculum, instructional design, and technology. The Journal of General Education, 49(1), 53-65. https:doi.org/10.1353/jge.2000.0001
- Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (1999). Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education. The Internet and Higher Education, 2(2-3), 87-105. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1096-7516(00)00016-6
- Goffman, E. (1963). Behavior in public places: Notes on the social organization of gatherings. New York, NY: The Free Press.
- Gorsky, P., Caspi, A., Antonovsky, A., Blau, I., & Mansur, A. (2010). The relationship between academic discipline and dialogic behavior in Open University course forums. The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 11(2), 49-72. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v11i2.820
- Henning, T. B. (2012). Writing professor as adult learner: An autoethnography of online professional development. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 16(2), 9-26. Retrieved from https://www.learntechlib.org/p/132462/
- Kim, J., Kwon, Y., & Cho, D. (2011). Investigating factors that influence social presence and learning outcomes in distance higher education. Computers & Education, 57(2), 1512-1520. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2011.02.005
- Lee, Y., & Choi, J. (2011). A review of online course dropout research: implications for practice and future research. Educational Technology Research and Development, 59(5), 593-618. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-010-9177-y
- Lehman, R. M., & Conceição, S. C. O. (2010). Creating a sense of presence in online teaching: How to “be there” for distance learners. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
- Lloyd, S. A., Byrne, M. M., & McCoy, T. S. (2012). Faculty-perceived barriers of online education. MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 8(1). Retrieved from https://jolt.merlot.org/vol8no1/lloyd_0312.pdf
- Lombard, M., & Ditton, T. (1997). At the heart of it all: The concept of presence. Journal of Computer ‐ Mediated Communication, 3(2). http:/doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.1997.tb00072.x
- Mills, S. J., Yanes, M. J., & Casebeer, C. M. (2009). Perceptions of distance learning among faculty of a college of education. MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 5(1), 19-28. Retrieved from https://jolt.merlot.org/vol5no1/mills_0309.pdf
- Moore, M. G. (1993). Theory of transactional distance. In D. Keene (Ed.), Theoretical principles of distance education (pp. 22-38). New York, NY: Routledge.
- Shea, P. (2007). Bridges and barriers to teaching online college courses: A study of experienced online faculty in 36 colleges. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 11(2), 73-128. http://dx.doi.org/10.24059/olj.v11i2.1728
- Slater, M. (1999). Measuring presence: A response to the Witmer and Singer presence questionnaire. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, 8(5), 560-565. https://doi.org/10.1162/105474699566477
- Smart, J. C., & Umbach, P. D. (2007). Faculty and academic environments: Using Holland’s theory to explore differences in how faculty structure undergraduate courses. Journal of College Student Development, 48(2), 183-195. https://doi.org/10.1353/csd.2007.0021
- Smith, G. G., Heindel, A. J., & Torres-Ayala, A. T. (2008). E-learning commodity or community: Disciplinary differences between online courses. The Internet and Higher Education, 11(3-4), 152-159. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iheduc.2008.06.008
- Smith, J. A., Flowers, P., & Larkin, M. (2009). Interpretative phenomenological analysis: Theory, method, and research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
- Sung, E., & Mayer, R. E. (2012). Five facets of social presence in online distance education. Computers in Human Behavior, 28(5), 1738-1747. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2012.04.014
- Tullis, J. G., & Benjamin, A. S. (2011). On the effectiveness of self-paced learning. Journal of Memory and Language, 64(2), 109-118. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2010.11.002
- Ulmer, L. W., Watson, L. W., & Derby, D. (2007). Perceptions of higher education faculty members on the value of distance education. The Quarterly Review of Distance Education, 8(1), 59-70. Retrieved from http://faculty.weber.edu/eamsel/Research%20Groups/On-line%20Learning/Umer%20et%20al.%20(2007).pdf
- Vaill, A. L., & Testori, P. A. (2012). Orientation, mentoring and ongoing support: A three-tiered approach to online faculty development. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks, 16(2), 111-119. Retrieved from https://www.learntechlib.org/p/132461/.
- Wasilik, O., & Bolliger, D. U. (2009). Faculty satisfaction in the online environment: An institutional study. The Internet and Higher Education, 12(3-4), 173-178. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iheduc.2009.05.001
- Yardley, L. (2008). Demonstrating validity in qualitative psychology. In J. A. Smith (Ed), Qualitative psychology: A practical guide to research methods (2nd ed., pp. 235-251). London, UK and Los Angeles, CA: Sage