When considering the basic differences between face-to-face and online classes, the separation of the student from the instructor and from other students typically comes to mind first. Unfortunately, this separation can lead to students feeling isolated and disoriented in the online platform and can ultimately result in dissatisfaction and lack of retention in the online learning environment (Lehman & Conceiçao, 2010). Instructors can help combat this separation and isolation by cultivating a sense of presence in their online course. In this case, presence refers to a sense of connectedness, togetherness, and awareness that is created by expressing strategic thoughts, feelings, and actions through an online medium.
Preparation
Proper preparation with regard to creating a sense of presence will help you feel confident in developing and delivering your course. Your level preparation will be reflected in the course and will affect students’ perceptions of your commitment to the course and your expertise on the subject. Additionally, your level of preparation will affect how students will value the course. Approach your course with a strategic plan for development regarding how you will be present for students. This includes: creating a course chunking and facilitation plan, reviewing your instructional methods and activities, preparing for the unexpected, and performing a test run of your course’s functionality before it goes live. Outlining the types of activities, interactions, strategies and technologies you plan to use throughout your course can illuminate areas of the course in which more presence may be required. Adequate preparation is critical in making presence happen in your online course.
Invest in Training
Good course development and design always begin with training, especially when considering the methods in which you will connect with your students in an online learning environment. One of the most important things you can do is become familiar with the learning management system (LMS), its features and its limitations. Having technical understanding and familiarity is an incredible asset once the course goes live and students begin interacting in the learning environment you have created. Not only will you be able to plan learning activities using the LMS’s interactive features to the fullest, but you’ll also be able to troubleshoot potential issues that may arise.
You might also consider connecting with someone in your department who is experienced in working in the LMS and designing effective online courses. Peer collaboration is an excellent way to be introduced to new ideas and methods for cultivating presence in your course and can also provide and added element of support unique to your department or area of expertise.
Set Students Up for Success
Students in an online course come from a variety of backgrounds. In the words of Lehman and Conceiçao (2010), “no matter who your learners are, you must provide services to meet their needs” (p. 40). One of these services should include making initial contact with your students by sending a welcome letter, video, or announcement before the course begins. This will give you an opportunity to introduce yourself, your vision for the course, and a personal invitation to students to get involved with the class. A welcome message from the instructor not only sends students the message that you care about their learning experience, but also that you will be monitoring their interactions in the course.
It is also important that you make no assumptions about the level of expertise or technical savvy that your students might have upon entering the course. Providing a detailed orientation to your course will set the pace for students and give them a valuable introduction that includes navigation details, course expectations, course timeline, instructor contact, and netiquette rules (Lehman & Conceiçao, 2010). This orientation can take the form of a scavenger hunt, survey, quiz, etc. and will facilitate a connection between the students, the instructor, and the content. You might also consider linking students to relevant and helpful resources like the LMS’s help site or UNF’s Student Online Learning Orientation course in Blackboard.
Build a sense of student presence by including introductory activities for students to complete during the first week of class. Typically known as icebreakers, these introductory activities can take the form of blogs, discussion boards, group activities, or minor multimedia projects. Whatever the icebreaker is, it should involve students introducing themselves and sharing personal anecdotes. “A well designed precourse orientation can help learners feel they are part of the learning community,” which is a critical component of student success and retention (Lehman & Conceiçao, 2010). Ultimately, the initial services you provide to students help them “get ready for a safe and comfortable [learning] environment” (Lehman & Conceiçao, 2010).
Focus on Communication
Focusing on communication with your students in your online course will enable you to provide support, encourage learning, and resolve conflicts—all crucial parts of being present. Determine which parts of your course will require your facilitation and which parts will be self-paced. This will give you an idea of where to focus your presence and whether you should be interacting with students one-on-one, with groups of students, or if students should be interacting with one another depending on the assignment or activity.
Once you have decided on where you will be present, you must determine how you will be present. The Announcements feature in Blackboard provides an opportunity to check in, maintain continuity, and keep students on task. Weekly announcements are a great place to provide basic directions for assignments, explain requirements or grading criteria, show and offer support related to course content, and give gentle reminders of deadlines and upcoming assignments. Your announcements should be conversational and personal—they serve as a way for you to remotely connect with your students. Specific details, personal information, or actual instruction are not appropriate for announcements.
In a traditional class, office hours are typically held in the instructor’s office or department. Maintain your commitment to meeting with students who need support in your online class by becoming proficient in technologies that will enable you meet virtually like Blackboard Collaborate, Skype, and Google Hangouts. Often times, students who take classes online are very connected to technology and may prefer to hear or see you via an audio or video announcement. Take advantage of providing video feedback to students’ assignments to encourage and inspire their learning; this is a feature built into Blackboard in the Record from Webcam tool. Focused and strategic communication will result in a sense of connectedness between you and your students and will send the message that you care about their experience in your course.
Writing is probably the most common medium through which instructors interact with their students in an online course, particularly when providing support, inciting discussion, and provoking critical thinking; however, the written word can sometimes be confusing, redundant, and impersonal. Making instructor-student, student-student, and student-content connections is essential for a successful online learning environment. You can facilitate making these types of connections through writing by paying attention to your tone, highlighting the most important details, focusing on quality over quantity, and being succinct. Writing with these intentions will help prepare students for the course, deliver the essential content, and clarify any ambiguities.
Monitor Your Effectiveness
A variety of approaches can be used to identify which activities and formats incorporated into your course create a sense of presence. Utilizing some of the following strategies can shed light on the level of instructor and student presence in your course:
Embrace Feedback
Acting upon course feedback will enable you to not only fine-tune your course, but also your effectiveness as an online instructor. As Lehman and Conceiçao point out, it is important to recognize that instructor and student presence may vary from course to course even when you are teaching the same course (p. 88). Examining formative and summative feedback can help you increase your understanding of student performance, gain credibility among your students, build engagement in future iterations of the course, and establish favorable learning conditions. Look for relationships between student grades, attitudes, and participation in your course activities and assessments. Embracing feedback and making appropriate changes in your course will continue to develop your sense of presence in your course and will ultimately result in you being more comfortable with the online learning environment.
References
Kahnweiler, J. (2013). Quiet influence: The introvert's guide to making a difference. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.
Lehman, R. & Conceiçao, S. (2010). Creating a sense of presence in online teaching. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Preparation
Proper preparation with regard to creating a sense of presence will help you feel confident in developing and delivering your course. Your level preparation will be reflected in the course and will affect students’ perceptions of your commitment to the course and your expertise on the subject. Additionally, your level of preparation will affect how students will value the course. Approach your course with a strategic plan for development regarding how you will be present for students. This includes: creating a course chunking and facilitation plan, reviewing your instructional methods and activities, preparing for the unexpected, and performing a test run of your course’s functionality before it goes live. Outlining the types of activities, interactions, strategies and technologies you plan to use throughout your course can illuminate areas of the course in which more presence may be required. Adequate preparation is critical in making presence happen in your online course.
Invest in Training
Good course development and design always begin with training, especially when considering the methods in which you will connect with your students in an online learning environment. One of the most important things you can do is become familiar with the learning management system (LMS), its features and its limitations. Having technical understanding and familiarity is an incredible asset once the course goes live and students begin interacting in the learning environment you have created. Not only will you be able to plan learning activities using the LMS’s interactive features to the fullest, but you’ll also be able to troubleshoot potential issues that may arise.
You might also consider connecting with someone in your department who is experienced in working in the LMS and designing effective online courses. Peer collaboration is an excellent way to be introduced to new ideas and methods for cultivating presence in your course and can also provide and added element of support unique to your department or area of expertise.
Set Students Up for Success
Students in an online course come from a variety of backgrounds. In the words of Lehman and Conceiçao (2010), “no matter who your learners are, you must provide services to meet their needs” (p. 40). One of these services should include making initial contact with your students by sending a welcome letter, video, or announcement before the course begins. This will give you an opportunity to introduce yourself, your vision for the course, and a personal invitation to students to get involved with the class. A welcome message from the instructor not only sends students the message that you care about their learning experience, but also that you will be monitoring their interactions in the course.
It is also important that you make no assumptions about the level of expertise or technical savvy that your students might have upon entering the course. Providing a detailed orientation to your course will set the pace for students and give them a valuable introduction that includes navigation details, course expectations, course timeline, instructor contact, and netiquette rules (Lehman & Conceiçao, 2010). This orientation can take the form of a scavenger hunt, survey, quiz, etc. and will facilitate a connection between the students, the instructor, and the content. You might also consider linking students to relevant and helpful resources like the LMS’s help site or UNF’s Student Online Learning Orientation course in Blackboard.
Build a sense of student presence by including introductory activities for students to complete during the first week of class. Typically known as icebreakers, these introductory activities can take the form of blogs, discussion boards, group activities, or minor multimedia projects. Whatever the icebreaker is, it should involve students introducing themselves and sharing personal anecdotes. “A well designed precourse orientation can help learners feel they are part of the learning community,” which is a critical component of student success and retention (Lehman & Conceiçao, 2010). Ultimately, the initial services you provide to students help them “get ready for a safe and comfortable [learning] environment” (Lehman & Conceiçao, 2010).
Focus on Communication
Focusing on communication with your students in your online course will enable you to provide support, encourage learning, and resolve conflicts—all crucial parts of being present. Determine which parts of your course will require your facilitation and which parts will be self-paced. This will give you an idea of where to focus your presence and whether you should be interacting with students one-on-one, with groups of students, or if students should be interacting with one another depending on the assignment or activity.
Once you have decided on where you will be present, you must determine how you will be present. The Announcements feature in Blackboard provides an opportunity to check in, maintain continuity, and keep students on task. Weekly announcements are a great place to provide basic directions for assignments, explain requirements or grading criteria, show and offer support related to course content, and give gentle reminders of deadlines and upcoming assignments. Your announcements should be conversational and personal—they serve as a way for you to remotely connect with your students. Specific details, personal information, or actual instruction are not appropriate for announcements.
In a traditional class, office hours are typically held in the instructor’s office or department. Maintain your commitment to meeting with students who need support in your online class by becoming proficient in technologies that will enable you meet virtually like Blackboard Collaborate, Skype, and Google Hangouts. Often times, students who take classes online are very connected to technology and may prefer to hear or see you via an audio or video announcement. Take advantage of providing video feedback to students’ assignments to encourage and inspire their learning; this is a feature built into Blackboard in the Record from Webcam tool. Focused and strategic communication will result in a sense of connectedness between you and your students and will send the message that you care about their experience in your course.
Writing is probably the most common medium through which instructors interact with their students in an online course, particularly when providing support, inciting discussion, and provoking critical thinking; however, the written word can sometimes be confusing, redundant, and impersonal. Making instructor-student, student-student, and student-content connections is essential for a successful online learning environment. You can facilitate making these types of connections through writing by paying attention to your tone, highlighting the most important details, focusing on quality over quantity, and being succinct. Writing with these intentions will help prepare students for the course, deliver the essential content, and clarify any ambiguities.
Monitor Your Effectiveness
A variety of approaches can be used to identify which activities and formats incorporated into your course create a sense of presence. Utilizing some of the following strategies can shed light on the level of instructor and student presence in your course:
- LMS User Progress Report: Most learning management systems can compile some type of user progress report so that you can identify which students have been active and when. In Blackboard, this feature is known as the Retention Center. Utilizing this feature allows you to identify students who may not be participating so that you can contact them and attempt to connect them to the course.
- Student Participation: While the LMS might provide data about student activity, monitoring and being aware of student participation with regard to discussion forums, assessments, group work, social networking, etc. will illuminate whether your level of presence is sufficient.
- Student and Instructor Activity in Non-Content Related Area: Provide students an opportunity to come together in the course over non-content related information. Including a “Q&A”, “Technical Help,” or “Think Tank” forum in your discussions area will encourage students to communicate with one another and with the instructor. Evaluating the interaction in these non-content related areas will determine if more or less presence is needed outside of the curriculum.
- Course Surveys and Evaluations: Deploying mid-term and end of term surveys and evaluations is an excellent way to gather first-hand information from students. Using mid-term course surveys in particular “shows your concern about your learners…provides you with information on how the course is progressing, and…gives you an opportunity to better meet your learners’ needs” (Lehman & Conceiçao, 2010). Using open-ended questions is recommended in both mid-term and end of term surveys and evaluations so that students can reflect on the course and share and process feelings related to their learning experience.
Embrace Feedback
Acting upon course feedback will enable you to not only fine-tune your course, but also your effectiveness as an online instructor. As Lehman and Conceiçao point out, it is important to recognize that instructor and student presence may vary from course to course even when you are teaching the same course (p. 88). Examining formative and summative feedback can help you increase your understanding of student performance, gain credibility among your students, build engagement in future iterations of the course, and establish favorable learning conditions. Look for relationships between student grades, attitudes, and participation in your course activities and assessments. Embracing feedback and making appropriate changes in your course will continue to develop your sense of presence in your course and will ultimately result in you being more comfortable with the online learning environment.
References
Kahnweiler, J. (2013). Quiet influence: The introvert's guide to making a difference. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.
Lehman, R. & Conceiçao, S. (2010). Creating a sense of presence in online teaching. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.