Social Presence in Virtual Professional Learning

Abstract

Our Participatory Action Research (PAR) study explored the development and facilitation of an innovative virtual maker professional learning (PL) program during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants included four researchers and educators from a university in southern Ontario. Findings indicate that social presence plays a particularly important role in virtual maker PL for participant engagement and learning. Virtual maker educators may experience moments of isolation, doubt and frustration which can be alleviated by making and learning in a community of practice in order to feel supported and sustained in the process.