The Human Element: Reducing Social Distance Through Online Instructional Videos

• In Event: Roundtable Session 27
  In Roundtable Session: Online Teaching and Learning SIG Roundtable Session 1

Abstract

One of the affordances of instructional videos in online courses is that they provide the opportunity for faculty to increase their instructor presence in asynchronous learning environments. This paper draws upon qualitative interview data collected from student perspectives about their experiences with online media, and discusses emergent themes such as trustworthiness (social context, branding, production values, nonverbal communication), and personalization (humor, colloquial language). That is, videos that encompassed these qualities were evaluated and discussed in ways that reflected more social presence (Dunlap & Lowenthal, 2014) and instructor immediacy (Baker, 2010), and less social distance (Magee & Smith, 2013). Our findings suggest that online instructional videos can be an effective tool to reduce social distance between instructors and students.

Authors

• Melanie Hibbert, Barnard College

• Kristine Rodriguez Kerr, Columbia University, School of Professional Studies

• Adrienne Garber, Columbia University

• Matthea Marquart, Columbia University