Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate whether asynchronous video posts and synchronous videoconferencing would create higher levels of teaching and social presence within an online course when compared with the university’s current text-based discussion platform. Undergraduate students in an online teacher education course were randomly assigned to either the text-based discussion platform or the video-based discussion platform. A switched replications design was used and halfway through the semester students switched platforms. Analysis of student interviews and surveys administered at the end of the semester indicated self-reported perceptions of social and teaching presence were significantly higher when using the video-enabled discussion site. Implications of the added value of video, both in synchronous and asynchronous contexts, are discussed and recommendations for further study are provided.
Highlights
Today online learning, learning that occurs at a distance where the learner uses some type of technology to interact with the instructor and other learners (Anderson, 2004), is no longer relegated to non-traditional students
In the present study we investigated whether students experienced a difference in teaching and social presence based on the discussion platform used during the online course
A mixed-methods action research approach was used to evaluate whether undergraduate teaching students perceived differences in teaching and social presence when using a platform that provided the ability to participate in synchronous videoconferencing and asynchronous video discussions (VED) as compared to the university’s text-based discussion (TBD) platform
Summary
Today online learning, learning that occurs at a distance where the learner uses some type of technology to interact with the instructor and other learners (Anderson, 2004), is no longer relegated to non-traditional students. Enrollment levels at predominantly online schools such as the University of Phoenix, Kaplan University, and Western Governors University are influencing traditional institutions to increase their number of online offerings (Burnsed, 2011). Attrition is significantly higher for online students than for students attending traditional classrooms (Doherty, 2006; Patterson & McFadden, 2009). The odds of students persisting in a course were positively related to their feelings of social presence (Liu, Gomez, & Yen, 2009), “the ability of participants...to project their personal characteristics into the community, thereby presenting themselves to the other participants as real people” Students were more likely to stay in the course as feelings of social presence increased
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