Establishing Teaching Presence in an Online Course

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Establishing Teaching Presencein anOnline
Course Thursday, April 9th 2009
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Introductions

• Credence Baker Tarleton State University
• Staci Taylor McLennan Community College

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How to be Invisible in an Online Course

• Being silent in an online classroom is
  equivalent to being invisible.
• Presence requires action in the online
  environment.
• Communication/Interaction
• Pictures, Color, Sound
• Simulations
• Demonstrations

(Blignaut and Trollip, 2003)
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Why is Teaching Presence Importantfor Online
Learning?

• Established Teaching Presence in an Online Course
  Has Been Positively Linked To
• Increased Affective Learning
• Increased Cognition
• Increased Motivation
• Increased Sense of Class Community

(Anderson, Rourke, Garrison Archer, 2001
Arbaugh, 2001 Richardson Swan, 2003 Baker,
2004 Garrison Cleveland-Innes, 2005 Nippard
Murphy, 2007 Baker, 2008)
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What Is Teaching Presence?

• Traditional Classroom engaging your students
  through the design, facilitation, and direction
  of your course.
• Online Course engaging your students through
  the design, facilitation, and direction of your
  course although physical contact is not available.

(Garrison, 2000 Picciano, 2002)
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Increasing Teaching PresenceFrom the Beginning
Designing Your Course

• Before the course commences, you can infuse
  personality into the course
• Personalized Graphics
• Pictures or Avatars
• Welcome Video
• Contact Students Priorto the Semester if
  Possible
• Interactive Content

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Increasing Teaching PresenceFacilitating and
Directing Your Course

• Strategies for increasing teaching presence
  during the course
• Virtual Office Hours
• Develop Consistent Patterns of Communication
• Virtual Hallway
• Students can post whatever here
• Plan unique bits of trivia separate from course
  content
• Also good place for school-related announcements
  not necessarily related to the course

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Increasing Teaching PresenceFacilitating and
Directing Your Course

• Strategies for increasing teaching presence
  during the course
• Use of Communication Immediacy (Merabian, 1974)

• Responding quickly and frequently
• Using Personal Pronouns
• Praising others (publicly privately)
• Conveying attentiveness

• Addressing students by name
• Initiating discussions
• Asking questions
• Using humor
• Using self-disclosure

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Increasing Teaching PresenceFacilitating and
Directing Your Course
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Increasing Teaching PresenceFacilitating and
Directing Your Course

• They did seem to help build a relationship with
  students, which was my goal.  I kept finding that
  my online students thought I was "meaner" than my
  on-campus ones, but I was actually more demanding
  on-campus (an online student came to my office to
  visit and when he left he said, "You're so
  different than I thought you'd be"  When I asked
  what he meant, he said he thought I'd have a bun
  and wear a grey suit.)  I watched for a semester
  to figure out what the difference was, and I
  decided at least part of it was that online
  students never see me smile or laugh or connect
  with them. A few students said they liked the
  videos just to see the expressions I make (I'm
  sure that happens in f2f classes, too).  Others
  said it felt like I was teaching them
  individually. All in all it worked well enough
  for me to try it again.
• Jennifer Black

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Increasing Teaching PresenceFacilitating and
Directing Your Course
Staci Taylor staylor_at_mclennan.edu 254-299-8363
Credence Baker cbaker_at_tarleton.edu 254-968-1843
http//teachingonlinecourses.edublogs.org/