Perceptions Of Social Presence Research Articles

Pathway to presence: an investigation of ambient awareness in online learning environments

ABSTRACT Due to the pervasiveness of online technology, especially social media and social networking sites (SNS) like Twitter and Facebook were are surrounded by a constant stream of information about other individuals. On the other hand, even though distance and online learning has become mainstream, there are still concerns leveled at many of these educational offerings, one of them being the relative social isolation of online and distance students. In this study, we investigate if and how ambient awareness, a concept originated in research in interpersonal effects of SNS, can play an important role in how salient social impressions of peers emerge and how this leads to perceptions of social presence among students. To this end, we use an impression formation paradigm in a four-week online distance course (N = 51). We found that students were able to form impressions of their peers through ambient awareness. These impressions differed in prevalence from the ones gathered through direct social interaction. In a larger second sample (N = 169), we find ambient awareness to be a mediator between the sociability of the learning environment and perceptions of social presence. Implications, limitations and suggestions for further research are discussed.

Small group use of communication technologies: a comparison of modality on group outcomes

Technology is an essential, and inevitable, component of group work and, as technology evolves, it is necessary to understand the impacts of various communication technologies on group outcomes. Groups, either working face-to-face, using two-dimensional video conferencing or three-dimensional tele-immersive video conferencing, were compared by how accurately and quickly they completed a task. Group member perceptions of social presence, satisfaction and technology acceptance were also explored. Results indicated little difference between face-to-face groups and 2D groups, while 3D groups were less accurate and slower with members reporting less social presence and satisfaction. However, when technology acceptance was controlled for, participants in this condition had more positive perceptions about the technology.

Perceptions of Technical and Social Presence Towards Customers Trust and Value: Click-And-Brick Versus Pure-Click Retailers

Manuscript type: Empirical Research Aims: Sellers/retailers understand that there is always a risk behind online interaction (e.g., anonymity or proximity) and respond with the multi-platform commercial channel (click-and-brick). Consequently, the click-and-brick (multi-channel) retailers gain, relatively, an immense prominence and rivalry from the pure-click (single-channel) retailers. The present study attempts to measure the impacts of both retailers’ (multi and single) web-features on trust and value perceptions. Design: Utilising structural equation modelling, the current study recruited 565 experienced respondents to provide primary data. Research Findings: These empirical findings provide several insights (recommendations) to pureclick retailers in developing and promoting offline presence, thus weathering the competition from multi-channel retailers. Theoretical Contribution: Past authors propose online loyalty construct into the online consumer behaviour. However, they ultimately concluded that the employed e-service features produced insignificant influence on the patron’s e-loyalty. Instead of the e-loyalty variable, the perceived value construct is introduced in the recent study. Research Limitation: Limitation of the present study originates from the research scope, which revolves around customer’s perception of a real-life retailer’s brand. The question remains if the retailer’s unresolved negative performance could overwrite the perceived value and make them prone to brand-switching.

The Effect of Soundscapes and Lightscapes on the Perception of Safety and Social Presence Analyzed in a Laboratory Experiment

The present study evaluates the effect of soundscape and lightscape variations on the perceived safety and perceived social presence in a pedestrian area through laboratory experiments. Thirty-one participants were presented with nine different virtual scenarios, in which the same underpass was reproduced under different soundscape and lightscape conditions. The participants were asked to assess each scenario considering 10 items related to perceived safety and perceived social presence. A principal component analysis allowed the 10 items to be reduced to two principal components, namely “perceived safety” and “perceived social presence”. A two-way repeated measures ANOVA analysis was conducted to assess the effect of modifications of both the soundscape and lightscape on the two components. The obtained results showed that the soundscape had an effect on both the perceived safety (p < 0.05) and perceived social presence (p < 0.05), while the lightscape variations implemented in this experiment only had a statistically significant effect on the latter (p < 0.05). The results of such studies may be of interest for public design and management as they may be conducted by means of non-intrusive and cost-effective techniques.

EXAMINING SOCIAL PRESENCE IN ONLINE COURSES IN RELATION TO STUDENTS' PERCEIVED LEARNING AND SATISFACTION

Research has demonstrated that social presence not only affects outcomes but also student, and possibly instructor, satisfaction with a course. Teacher immediacy behaviors and the presence of others are especially important issues for those involved in delivering online education. This study explored the role of social presence in online learning environments and its relationship to students’ perceptions of learning and satisfaction with the instructor. The participants for this study were students who completed Empire State College’s (ESC) online learning courses in the spring of 2000 and completed the end of semester course survey (n=97). A correlational design was utilized. This study found that students with high overall perceptions of social presence also scored high in terms of perceived learning and perceived satisfaction with the instructor. Students’ perceptions of social presence overall, moreover, contributed significantly to the predictor equation for students’ perceived learning overall. Gender accounted for some of the variability of students’ overall perception of social presence, while age and number of college credits earned did not account for any of the variability.

ON THE NATURE AND DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIAL PRESENCE IN ONLINE COURSE DISCUSSIONS

“Social presence,” the degree to which participants in computer-mediated communication feel affectively connected one to another, has been shown to be an important factor in student satisfaction and success in online courses. This mixed methods study built on previous research to explore in greater depth the nature of social presence and how it develops in online course discussions. The study combined quantitative analyses of survey results from students enrolled in four online graduate courses, and qualitative comparisons of students with the highest and lowest perceptions of social presence. Quantitative results revealed significant correlations between perceived social presence and satisfaction with online discussions, and teased apart the respective influences of the perceived presence of instructors and peers. The findings indicate that the perceived presence of instructors may be a more influential factor in determining student satisfaction than the perceived presence of peers. Correlations with other course and learner characteristics suggest that course design may also significantly affect the development of social presence. Qualitative findings support the quantitative results. In addition, they provide evidence that students perceiving the highest social presence also projected themselves more into online discussions,and reveal meaningful differences in perceptions of the usefulness and purpose of online discussion between students perceiving high and low social presence.

Facilitating Students’ Interaction in MOOCs through Timeline-Anchored Discussion

ABSTRACTInteraction is central to any learning experience. Currently, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) rely on discussion forums as a primary means of interaction among learners and instructors. Threaded discussions of such forums help learners to hold an ongoing and recursive discussion over an extended period, but the lack of temporal and spatial contiguity makes it insufficient to deliver a smooth interaction experience. To facilitate such interaction, this study designed DanMOOC, a commenting tool that facilitates timeline-anchored discussion among MOOC learners and instructors. DanMOOC was the first to combine threaded discussions with Danmaku commenting, a video commenting feature that allows viewers of the same video to share comments at the top of the video screen. The design process followed an iterative process of user-centered design. The impact of the new design on learning was assessed empirically through a laboratory experiment comparing DanMOOC with the current MOOC system (video-based learning + forum). The results show that DanMOOC increases learners’ perceptions of social, teaching, and cognitive presence, engages learners more in discussion, and improves learners’ satisfaction with both the course and the platform.

Web 2.0 for fostering students' social presence in online learning-based interaction

Research in education confirmed that students engage in learning when they feel connected with others and when they play an active role in their learning process. Therefore; social presence (SP) considered as an important component of effective learning in both face-face and online learning environment. Therefore, this study intended to investigate students’ perception about SP when using Web 2.0 tool for learning-based interaction and the difference in their perception based on gender and number of the semesters of the study. The participants of this study were 71 postgraduate students in one of the Malaysian public universities. The quantitative methods of data collection and data analysis were used in this study. Therefore, the researcher employed survey method using Online Social Presence Questionnaire (OSPQ) to collect the data. The data were analyzed using SPSS software to find mean, standard deviation of students’ perception of their social presence while using Web 2.0 tool for learning-based interaction. Independent sample t-test was used to find the difference in students perception based on their gender. Moreover, One-Way ANOVA was used to find the difference in students’ SP perception based on their semester of the study. The findings of this study showed that students expressed high perception about their social presence on Web 2.0 tool. Nonetheless, male students perceived higher social presence on Web 2.0 tool than female students. However, there were not significant differences in students’ perception of social presence neither based on the gender difference nor on the number of the semester of the study.

Percepções sobre presença social em interações mediadas por dispositivos de comunicação móveis

Este artigo apresenta uma análise qualitativa sobre a percepção da Presença Social em interações mediadas por dispositivos móveis, tomando como foco principal de exploração as particularidades associadas à ausência ou diminuição de pistas não verbais (habitualmente ocorridas nesta modalidade de mediação). Os dados são provenientes de uma pesquisa realizada com 120 jovens universitários de seis cidades brasileiras. Os relatos dos respondentes apontaram, em geral, dificuldades na percepção da presença social devido à sobreposição de demandas e expectativas sociais derivadas de duas modalidades interacionais: via dispositivos móveis e face a face.

Asynchronous Video and the Development of Instructor Social Presence and Student Engagement

Enrollment in online learning continues to grow in the higher education sector, along with persistent goals dedicated to achieving better student outcomes and lowering attrition rates. Improved student engagement has been shown to possibly reduce attrition rates through a greater sense of connectedness and decreased feelings of isolation among online learners. Instructor social presence may be the most important factor in building the relationships that foster learning and retention. Through communication, the instructor conveys the necessary immediacy behaviors required to cultivate these interpersonal relationships. With improved technology that allows for enhanced communication in online classrooms, the use of asynchronous video may be an effective way to improve instructor social presence and student engagement. This quasi-experimental design aimed to determine whether asynchronous video or text-based communication increased students’ perceptions of instructor social presence and student engagement in an online graduate classroom. Significance was found for student engagement based on the number of discussion posts and length of discussion posts. Students in the group who received text-based communication demonstrated increased student engagement in voluntary discussion boards as opposed to students in the group who received asynchronous video. There was no significant difference found for instructor social presence between the two groups.

An Experimental Study of Embodied Interaction and Human Perception of Social Presence for Interactive Robots in Public Settings

The human perception of robots as social depends on many factors, including those that do not necessarily pertain to a robot’s cognitive functioning. Experience design (ED) offers a useful framework for evaluating when participants interact with robots as products or tools and when they regard them as social actors. This paper describes a between-participants experiment conducted at a science museum, where visitors were invited to play a game of noughts and crosses with a Baxter robot. The goal is to foster meaningful interactions that promote engagement between the human and the robot in a museum context. Using an ED framework, we tested the robot in three different conditions to better understand which factors contribute to the perception of robots as social. The experiment also outlines best practices for conducting human–robot interaction research in museum exhibitions. Results from the study indicate that perceived social presence can be evaluated using a combination of human robot interaction and ED methods that measure co-presence and co-experience.

Assessing the Impact of Video-Based Assignments on Health Professions Students' Social Presence on Web: Case Study.

BackgroundWeb-based education is one of the leading learning pedagogies in health professions education. Students have access to a multitude of opinions, knowledge, and resources on Web, but communication among students in Web-based courses is complicated. Technology adds a filter that makes it difficult to decipher the emotions behind words or read nonverbal cues. This is a concern because students benefit more from Web-based classes when they have a high perception of social presence. To enhance social presence on Web, we planned to use video-based assignments (VBAs) that encourage students to interact with each other.ObjectiveThis case study examines the impact of VBAs on health professions students and their experiences with the technology. This study aims to provide information to the growing body of literature about strategies to develop social presence on Web.MethodsA total of 88 students from various nursing programs participated in the study. While the control group comprised 36 students who submitted only written-based assignments (WBAs), the experimental group of 52 students submitted VBAs besides WBAs. No enrolled student had previously participated in the course, and there were no repeaters in either of the groups. Both groups participated in a weekly survey comprising 4 open-ended questions and 3 Likert items on a scale of 1-5 (1=strongly disagree and 5=strongly agree). The social presence questionnaire assessed by the experimental group comprised 16 items and a 5-point Likert scale in which higher scores represented higher levels of social presence. While quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, qualitative responses were analyzed using content analysis.ResultsNo significant differences were noted between the groups regarding the program (F1,87=0.36, P=.54). Regarding students’ engagement, no statistically significant difference was observed between the 2 groups (t14=0.96, P=.35). However, the experimental group’s average score for engagement was slightly higher (4.29 [SD 0.11]) than that of the control group (4.21 [SD 0.14]). Comparison of the total number of responses to the weekly engagement survey revealed 88.0% (287/326) as either strongly agree or agree in the control group, whereas 93.1% (525/564) in the experimental group. No statistically significant difference was observed between VBAs and WBAs weeks (t6=1.40, P=.21) in the experimental group. Most students reported a positive experience using VBAs, but technical issues were barriers to embracing this new approach to learning.ConclusionsThis study reveals that social presence and engagement are positively associated with student learning and satisfaction in Web-based courses. Suggestions are offered to enhance social presence on Web that could generate better learning outcomes and students’ experiences.

Students’ Perceptions of Social Presence in Blended Learning Courses in a Tanzanian Medical College

Social presence in a blended learning involves construction of learning through student sharing, interaction and support thus improving students’ motivation, and learning. This study examines students’ perceptions of social presence (SP) in blended learning courses (BL) in a medical college in Tanzania. Three research questions are addressed: are there significant differences in the reported scores of social presences among students based on gender, age and year of study? How is social presence encouraged in the BL medical courses? How is social presence associated with students’ learning in the BL medical courses? Following a mixed method, Social Presence Scale and Focus Group Discussion were in data collection. BL in these courses included face-to- face lectures, student online and face-to-face group discussions, laboratory practices, team-based learning (TBL), and online exams. The study involved 144 medical students. Survey results showed no significant differences in the reported scores of social presences based on their characteristics. However, affective expression and open communication were more valued than group cohesion elements of SP. Qualitative results show that social presence was encouraged through provision of group assignments, teacher online activities, and students’ group discussions. Through social presence and interaction, students learnt various concepts, examination questions in both online and in face-to-face discussions. The conclusion is that students’ characteristics are not crucial, however, group discussion and social presence influence their learning.

Social Presence in Massive Open Online Courses

The capacity to foster interpersonal interactions in massive open online courses (MOOCs) has frequently been contested, particularly when learner interactions are limited to MOOC forums. The establishment of social presence—a perceived sense of somebody being present and “real”—is among the strategies to tackle the challenges of online learning and could be applied in MOOCs. Thus far, social presence in MOOCs has been under-researched. Studies that previously examined social presence in MOOCs did not account for the peculiar nature of open online learning. In contrast to the existing work, this study seeks to understand how learners perceive social presence, and the different nuances of social presence in diverse MOOC populations. In particular, we compare perceptions of social presence across the groups of learners with different patterns of forum participation in three edX MOOCs. The findings reveal substantial differences in how learners with varying forum activity perceive social presence. Perceptions of social presence also differed in courses with the varying volume of forum interaction and duration. Finally, learners with sustained forum activity generally reported higher social presence scores that included low affectivity and strong group cohesion perceptions. With this in mind, this study is significant because of the insights into brings to the current body of knowledge around social presence in MOOCs. The study’s findings also raise questions about the effectiveness of transferring existing socio-constructivist constructs into the MOOC contexts.

Using Facebook groups to support social presence in online learning

ABSTRACTBuilding interpersonal connections in asynchronous online learning is important, but it is harder to achieve compared to face-to-face learning experiences due to its mostly text-based nature. Facebook is a popular social media platform and has been used as an outside-class communication space in formal learning contexts to supplement cognitive and affective aspects of learning. In this study, we used Facebook groups as supplemental social spaces in two asynchronous online master’s-level courses to understand if it impacted students’ perceptions of social presence (i.e., copresence, immediacy, and intimacy), learning interaction with faculty and peers, as well as sociability of the online learning environment. The results indicated that students felt more positively about social presence and learning interactions with other classmates and their instructor and perceived the course as having more sociability after they joined the class Facebook group. Findings have implications for supporting social impression formation in online learning.

The relationship between willingness to communicate and social presence in an online English language course

Vietnamese high school students have few opportunities to use English outside class and they are often reluctant to speak in class. This paper describes and explains the students’ willingness to communicate (wtc) and relates this to varied perceptions of social presence. Eighteen high school students in Vietnam took a six-week online course using Facebook and Skype. They were interviewed individually before and after the course about their experiences, focusing on their perceptions of their own wtc. The results show that the students were more willing to use English spontaneously in the online environment in contexts where they perceived that they had less social presence. Text and audio chat were felt to be less face threatening than video chat, and consequently, students were more willing to speak in conditions of lower social presence. It can be concluded that the more social presence students felt they had in the online environment, the less their wtc. This was true for both synchronous and asynchronous online environments. Allowing students to control their social presence in online communication can embolden shy students and increase their WTC.

The relationship between willingness to communicate and social presence in an online English language course

Vietnamese high school students have few opportunities to use English outside class and in class they are often reluctant to speak in class. This paper describes and explains the students’ willingness to communicate (WTC) and relates this to varied perceptions of social presence. Eighteen high school students in Vietnam took a six-week online course using Facebook and Skype. They were interviewed individually before and after the course about their experiences, focusing on their perceptions of their own WTC. The results show that the students were more willing to use English spontaneously in the online environment in contexts where they perceived that they had less social presence. Text and audio chat were felt to be less face threatening than video chat, and consequently, students were more willing to speak in conditions of lower social presence. It can be concluded that the more social presence students felt they had in the online environment, the less their WTC. This was true for both synchronous and asynchronous online environments. Allowing students to control their social presence in online communication can embolden shy students and increase their WTC.

A Robot That Communicates With Vocal Fillers Has … Uhhh … Greater Social Presence

Social robots are communicative partners that need interpersonal communication skills. Vocal fillers have been shown to act as cues during interpersonal communication. The purpose of this experiment was to test people’s perceptions of their social presence with social robots utilizing vocal fillers. Participants reported an increase in their perceptions of social presence during the condition in which the social robot spoke with vocal fillers.

Fear of Isolation and Perceived Affordances: The Spiral of Silence on Social Networking Sites Regarding Police Discrimination

The spiral of silence (SoS) framework elaborates the factors that determine whether individuals are willing to express their opinions in public. Although previous scholarship has examined differences in between face-to-face and computer-mediated communication, research studies have rarely tested how perceived affordances of the channel influence whether individuals express opinions or self-censor. In this study (N = 399), we examine several propositions of SoS within the context of discussing police discrimination on Facebook. To extend the theory’s relevance to social networking sites, we examined how users’ perceptions of network association, social presence, anonymity, and persistence related to opinion expression. Findings indicate support for some of the theory’s original tenets, as well as the role of multiple perceived affordances in determining whether people will express an opinion to their online social network. We discuss the implications for measuring and understanding political expression and silencing on social media as well as offline.

Uzaktan Eğitim Öğrencilerinin Sosyal Bulunuşluk Algılarını Yordayan Öğrenme Stratejileri

This research has been planned for presenting the relations between the social presence and self-regulation in e-learning process which is very important for distance education students. In this respect, it is tried to determined the learning strategies which predict the social presence perceptions of the students. The research which is carried out according to the survey model, is actualize with the data obtained from 61 students giving appropriate answers to the questions in data collection tools. In collecting the data; motivated strategies for learning questionnaire, social presence scale and personal information form which is developed by the authors, has been used. In analyzing the data; descriptive statistics, stepwise regression analysis and one way ANOVA are used. Study results shows that e-learners perceived co-presence could be predicted with two variables; organization and help seeking, e-learners perceived influence could be predicted with three variables; organization, help seeking and effort regulation, e-learners perceived cohesiveness could be predicted with three variables; help seeking, organization and effort regulation, and e-learners perceived social presence could be predicted with three variables; organization, help seeking and effort regulation. Besides, the social presence perception of the students, do not show a significant difference according to the gender, class level and department variables.