Eight Ways to Increase Social Presence in Your Online Classes

Excellent Post from: Faculty Focus

By: Hong Wang, PhD. in Online Education

 Social presence is an important concept in distance education. So, how can we increase social presence in online teaching? Here are some ideas for you to try.

A welcome letter. It is helpful to send a welcome letter to your students or post it on the online course site at the beginning of the semester. This will make online learners feel welcome and sense the instructor’s virtual presence from the very beginning of the course.

A personalized introduction. As instructors, we all know that it is important to hold students’ attention in the first class, and this can be accomplished through many techniques such as an interesting teaser, an overview of a well-planned course, a display of a fun and humorous personality, and more.

Together with a paragraph introducing yourself, it would be nice to add a still image, a hyperlink to a home page if you have one, an audio clip, or a video clip to add a human touch to the online classroom.

Make good use of email. Email can be used in three ways in online teaching: class email, group email, and individual email. Class email is “email broadcast” according to Horton (2000). It is used for important announcements such as schedule changes or correcting misunderstandings or misconceptions. Group email can be used to provide students ideas, guidance, or feedback on group projects. Individual email can be used for many situations such as answering individual questions, providing feedback on assignments, motivating students to learn, and following up with students for special situations.

Use course announcements frequently. Making announcements in a Web-based course is another way to connect with the students. I have been trying to post one to four messages each week, depending on what and whom I teach.

Take advantage of the discussion board. Most online instructors use the discussion board, but not all of us are active in participation. It is important to get involved in the discussion and engaged in the conversation, commenting on students’ posts and guiding their learning. We continue to explore how to use discussions effectively. The ways I have tried include both group and class discussions; having a group leader facilitate the group discussion; summarizing the group discussion; and sharing with the rest of the class, using a rubric to grade discussions.

Use synchronous communication to enhance social presence. Immediacy is a critical element in social presence, and communication in real time often enhances social presence when handled well.

Try Web 2.0 tools for fun and collaboration. I tried blogs for a couple of classes, and I’ve found students enjoyed it. They had fun and a sense of achievement in creating their own blogs. Through the blog creation and communication, there was more interaction between students as well as between the students and me. Some of them maintain the blog and keep communicating with me and other students even after the completion of my course.

A concluding remark and best-wishes statement. After the final exam, final project, or other type of final learning assessment at the end of the semester, always remember to send all students an email or a class announcement. This message functions as a conclusion of the class. From a welcome letter to a wrapping-up best-wishes statement, you as an instructor show your social presence at both the beginning and the end of the class.

References

Horton, W. (2000). Designing web-based training. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Hong Wang is the director of the Center for Teaching Excellence and Learning Technologies at Fort Hays State University.

Information Literacy at UDC

[Special weekly post from Rachel Jorgensen, Digital & Information Literacy  Librarian, University of the District of Columbia]

Once a week this space will be dedicated to providing information on the Information Literacy Program within the Learning Resources Division, as well as related services and topics.

Before we get going full-tilt on such a topic I thought it might be best to define what “information literacy” is in general, as well as what I mean by “information literacy” within the context of the Learning Resources Division and the University of the District of Columbia and why information literacy is important.

What Is It?

…information flows in all directions and does as it pleases, for better or for worse, serving no masters and obeying no party line. -- Walter Kim “Little Brother Is Watching.” New York Times Magazine, October 17, 2010, p. 18.


In essence, information literacy describes a set of skills that allow you

• to collect information
• critique that information
• use the information for a specific purpose.

Many institutions and organizations have created their own definition of information literacy, but these definitions, when compared, are very similar to each other. (See the Resources section below for links to information literacy documents.)

For most academic librarians (of which I am one) information literacy is a set of five competencies, as described by the Association of College and Research Libraries (a sub-division of the American Library Association.)

These competencies are:

• Determine the extent of information needed
• Access the needed information effectively and efficiently
• Evaluate information and its sources critically
• Incorporate selected information into one’s knowledge base
• Use information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose
• Understand the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of information, and access and use information ethically and legally

Why Is It Important?

I remember as an undergraduate having three basic types of resources to use when researching a paper: reference books, academic books and journal indexes and I had only three places to go to find these: the card catalog, the print index section and the reference desk.

By the time I graduated, the library’s catalog had been computerized (and searched using DOS commands), JSTOR had arrived and I found myself doing research using the computer, rather than hoofing through the shelves. In the short span of four years undergraduate life had changed drastically.

Today, students must deal with a plethora of information sources – websites, article databases, web-based library catalogs, on-line reference resources, in-print books, in-print articles, etc. They receive competing and contradictory direction: Don’t use web resources! Use web resources! Use nothing electronic!, etc.

Often, students are stymied by the amount of options available to them -- they cannot find the clear access point for what they need. (Except for Google and its nice, neat one search-box interface, which many library databases are attempting to emulate…but that’s a whole different discussion for another day.)

Students who are information literate are able to identify what information they need, how to access it and how to use it. They are efficient researchers and critical thinkers.

The worth of being information literate is not limited to college -- this type of competency is applicable to multiple aspects of life: personal finance…job skills…home ownership… In contemporary life information comes at us in a steady stream and having the ability to critique information, judging it for validity and accuracy, is an essential skill.

How Does One Become Literate?

There are many ways to become information literate and just like every other type of learning, repeated exposure to the fundamental concepts is the best way to internalize the skill. In my opinion, the best practice is to have the librarian and instructor work together to provide cohesive learning opportunities.

Generally speaking, teaching "information literacy" occurs when the the librarian is invited to provide instruction to a class and give a one-shot presentation during which the students learn about the library catalog, article databases and other resources.

In such sessions there is no time to teach even basic information literacy skills, let alone teach them how to effectively use library resources for basic tasks.

A different tactic would be to have the instructor and librarian work together to create a graduated research assignment in which students would be guided through the steps of defining a topic, finding back-ground information, conducting the research (finding appropriate books, articles, etc.), critiquing those materials for validity and usefulness and, finally, producing an end product – such as a paper or presentation.

I believe it is this type of structure that gives students the opportunity to truly learn the process of consideration, which is at the heart of information literacy.

This is only one example of how teaching to information literacy can be embedded within a curriculum. There are many other techniques that can be used -- a further discussion of these techniques will be the subject of some of my future posts.

Resources

Professional Standards and Guidelines

• Association of College and Research Libraries Information Literacy Overview
• ACRL: Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Edcuation
• Institute of Museum and Library Services Museum, Libraries, and 21st Century Skills
• Middle States Commission on Higher Education Guidelines for Institutional Improvement
• American Association of School Librarians Standards for the 21st-Century Learner

Next Post

In next week's post I will provide more information on the LRD Information Literacy program and how it relates to student learning and the curriculum.

Want More Information?

Feel free to contact me! rjorgensen[at]udc[dot]edu

How Long Does it Take for Technology to go Mainstream?

The Gartner Group recently released a report examining the time to maturity for 1800 technologies.  Living in this digital age, as educators we have found ways to adapt to new ways of creating, reviewing, and sharing information.  For some, this means just ignoring new methods and sticking with what works.  For others, it's a seemingly never-ending game of 'let's see if THIS works', as new tools are replaced by newer ones.

Education will always be lagging behind the rest of society when it comes to the use of technology,  but as the pace of 'new' continues to increase, it's imperative to jump on the bandwagon sooner than later.  Many of these newer technologies are dependent on working knowledge of it's predecessor, so the longer we wait, the longer it will take to understand them.

Here's the graphic.  Note, most of these technologies are predicted to take 2-5 years for mainstream adoption. Don't get left behind!