Effect of Manipulating Teaching Presence on Students’ Perceptions of Community and Presence in Online Courses

• In Event: Online Teaching and Learning: Community of Inquiry Research

Abstract

An important aspect of examining the effectiveness of online learning is to understand student’s perceptions of their cognitive and social presence in the online learning environment and how they relate to the instructor’s presence. Toward this goal, the purpose of the current study was to examine how students’ perceptions change when teaching presence was manipulated. Results indicate that students’ perceptions of teaching presence and social presence decreased slightly with the decrease in instructor engagement, while their perceptions of cognitive presence and their sense of belonging to a learning community increased slightly, but none of the changes were statistically significant. The implications of these findings suggest how faculty’s level of engagement with students may relate to students’ learning experiences.

Author

• Melissa Kelly, University of Illinois at Chicago