Social Presence in Online Collaborative Learning: Definition and Measurement

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 11
  In Roundtable Session: Cooperative Learning Roundtable

Abstract

Social presence is an important but contested construct in online collaborative learning: many conceptualizations and definitions; different predictors; different theoretically-based dimensions; and various incompatible measures. The undesired situation prevents a coherent study of social presence and its effects on learning outcomes. Therefore, we reformulated the original definition of social presence of Short, Williams, and Christie (1976) to make it suitable for operationalization – a kind of resetting the situation. We present a social presence measure that has undergone a robust validation process using the Rasch Measurement Model. Two empirical dimensions emerged: Awareness of others and Proximity with others. Only those persons who also, next to perceptions of awareness of others, experience proximity with others have high perceptions of social presence.

Authors

• Karel Kreijns, Open Universiteit Nederland

• Monique Bijker, Open Universiteit Nederland

• Joshua Weidlich, Heidelberg University